On Jordan's Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge African American Studies Race, Ethnicity, and Post-Colonial Studies 2006 On Jordan's Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley Darrel E. Bigham Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Bigham, Darrel E., "On Jordan's Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley" (2006). African American Studies. 2. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_african_american_studies/2 On Jordan’s Banks Ohio River Valley Series Rita Kohn, Series Editor On Jordan’s Banks ^^^ Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley DARREL E. BIGHAM THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright © 2006 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508–4008 www.kentuckypress.com Cover photograph courtesy of Bernie Spencer at http://www.nkyviews.com/bracken/augusta08.htm Map by Dick Gilbreath Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bigham, Darrel E. On Jordan’s banks : emancipation and its aftermath in the Ohio River Valley / Darrel E. Bigham. p. cm. — (Ohio River Valley series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8131-2366-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. African Americans—Ohio River Valley—History—19th century. 2. Slaves— Emancipation—Ohio River Valley. 3. Ohio River Valley—History—19th century. I. Title. II. Series. F520.6.N4B54 2005 977’.00496073—dc22 2005018312 ISBN 978-0-8131-2366-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses Contents Series Foreword vii Preface ix Map: The Ohio River and Surrounding Territories xi Prologue: The Ohio River Valley as a Region 5 Part One: Before the War 1. Uneasy Slavery in Kentucky along the Ohio 13 2. Incomplete Freedom on the North Shore 33 Part Two: The Impact of the Civil War on Blacks 3. Conflict and Remnants of Slavery on the South Shore 59 4. Blacks and Whites Together and Apart on the North Shore 81 Part Three: The Postwar Years 5. Population and Residential Patterns 105 6. Free and Equal, with Opportunities and Pains 129 7. Citizenship and Civil Rights after the Fourteenth Amendment 155 8. The Progress of Blacks and the Ballot Box 177 9. Making a Living 201 10. Families and Community Life 229 11. Black Society 247 12. Schools for Blacks 271 Epilogue: From the 1890s to the Great Depression 299 Appendix: Population Tables 315 Notes 331 Index 403 Illustrations follow page 214 This page intentionally left blank Series Foreword ^ he Ohio River Valley Series, conceived and published by the University TPress of Kentucky, is an ongoing series of books that examine and illumi- nate the Ohio River and its tributaries, the lands drained by these streams, and the peoples who made this fertile and desirable area their place of residence, of refuge, of commerce and industry, of cultural development, and, ultimately, of engagement with American democracy. In doing this, the series builds upon an earlier project, Always a River: the Ohio River and the American Experi- ence,” a multifaceted project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the humanities councils of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with a mix of private and public organiza- tions. Each book’s story is told through the men and women acting within their particular time and place. Each directs attention to the place of the Ohio River in the context of the larger American story and reveals the rich resources for the history of the Ohio River and of the nation afforded by records, papers, artifacts, works of art, and oral stories preserved by families and institutions. Each traces the impact the river and the land have had on individuals and cultures and, conversely, the changes these individuals and cultures have wrought on the valley with the passage of years. With On Jordan’s Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley, Darrel Bigham brings forward a story that has been a sleeping giant for more than a century. Through meticulous scholarship, Bigham utilizes pri- mary and secondary sources not only to interpret the rural and small-town past previously disregarded by historians; but equally, he illustrates how the strengths of the formerly enslaved persons became the fuel of the civil rights movement. He shows how the power of the Reverend Martin Luther King’s pulpit descended directly from the leadership of preachers whose churches were the locus of free blacks as they built coherent support systems and grassroots empowerment in new hamlets, neighborhoods, and communities. viii Series Foreword On Jordan’s Banks is must reading for today’s black youth so they can grow through the grace, dignity, and determination of people who refused merely to overcome. They triumphed and became the emancipated builders of the economy: artists, teachers, inventors, thinkers, entrepreneurs. They stood on Jordan’s banks, crossed the Jordan, and never forgot the visionaries who pre- ceded them. Those who now squander this bequest will be reminded of their latent legacy through a thorough reading of this long-awaited volume. Each generation must remember and thrive through diligence and faith in their own ability to make and leave a footprint of valor. Bigham illuminates the emergent black experience just before, during, and immediately following the Civil War by contrasting and comparing settlements in counties along the southern and northern banks of the Ohio River. He shows how geography shapes these experiences, eventually spreading them into the northern interior as railroads and later buses carry rural dwellers to industrial jobs. Their collec- tive experience in turn shapes that of the larger nation. On Jordan’s Banks is a book to be read, not summarized. Bigham’s epilogue is especially noteworthy as a challenge to us all to pay attention to neglected sources. While he concludes that virulent racism,” now as before, constrains options for African Americans, the book itself challenges the reader to do no less that what is possible even in the least hospitable of worlds. Built on the interpretation and synthesis of past activities, On Jordan’s Banks is a call to present and future action. Rita Kohn Series Editor Preface ^ his study resulted from two separate but related research and writing Tprojects. One was the work begun in the early 1970s that led to the 1987 publication of We Ask Only a Fair Trial: A History of the Black Community of Evansville, Indiana by Indiana University Press. The other was the scholarship generated by the Always a River project, a collaborative effort of the state humanities councils in the six states touched by the Ohio River. For that endeavor, I wrote a chapter on economic development in the anthology Al- ways a River. The project created a series of works on the Ohio Valley as well, of which Rita Kohn of Indianapolis remains the editor, that have been published by the University Press of Kentucky. In preparation for my Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio, a 1998 volume in that series, I expanded my ongoing research on African Americans well beyond the Evansville region. I then proposed another volume that would focus on race relations and black community- building in the corridor stretching from Catlettsburg, Kentucky, and cross- river Ironton, Ohio, downstream to the mouth of the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois. Fortunately, historical resources aplenty are to be found on the Internet as well as in the repositories of libraries in the region. As with earlier efforts, I have benefited enormously from the wealth of material available at Evansville’s Willard Library, which possesses an extensive collection of primary and sec- ondary sources on state and local history. To Willard’s staff, I express my gratitude for years of generous and thoughtful assistance. I also appreciate the support provided by the rich regional history collection in the Special Collections Department of the Rice Library at the University of Southern Indiana. My interest in the history of African Americans of this region began in 1972 in the living room of John and Josephine Elliott of New Harmony, Indiana. The Elliotts introduced me to the late Solomon and Alberta Stevenson of Evansville, both active in Evansville civil rights activities. There emerged an extensive oral history program on black Evansville that I directed, and x Preface that project prompted me to begin researching and writing about blacks in Evansville and the surrounding area. Josephine and John,