Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T20:36:17.325Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Western Kentucky and Indiana

from PART II - FREEDOM'S FIRES BURN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2018

R. J. M. Blackett
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
Get access

Summary

When thirty-one-year-old James Armstrong, a valued slave, crossed the Ohio River in a bid for freedom on October 8, 1853, James Rudd, his master, a wealthy Louisville merchant, responded immediately, sending two members of his family, accompanied by a slave catcher from Hamlet Services, in hot pursuit. Armstrong did not get far into Indiana; he was soon caught and returned at a cost of $135 to Rudd in jail fees and other expenses. Almost two months to the day after his first escape, Armstrong was on the run again, this time in the company of Edward, a slave of Christopher Beeler. They were assisted by Moses Bard, a black barber sometimes known as Moses Hurst, and Shadrach Henderson, a black boatman, both residents of New Albany, Indiana, across the river from Louisville. The four headed first to New Albany and then north to Salem, Washington County. For some inexplicable reason, they doubled back to New Albany and took refuge in the basement of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where they were arrested by Louisville police on December 18, 1853. Armstrong's recovery cost Rudd $342, the bulk of which – $250 – was payment of an advertised reward. Rudd also confiscated $83 found on Armstrong at the time of his recapture. Worried that Armstrong's actions would affect the disposition of his forty-six other slaves, and clearly peeved by Armstrong's determination to be free, Rudd sold the recalcitrant slave in March 1854 for $1,600, a handsome profit, all things considered.

Armstrong's escapes bring into sharp relief a number of issues associated with the flight of the enslaved from the area, and all along the border between slavery and freedom. Armstrong, it seemed, had taken the initiative, at least in the first instance, to flee his master, to emancipate himself, and when that did not succeed, to seek assistance from those he knew had a reputation for aiding those seeking freedom. The sheer volume of advertisements in local newspapers offering rewards for escaped slaves speaks to the determination of the enslaved to be free, or at least to put some distance between themselves and their masters, as well as the commitment of slaveholders to recover lost property. J. Blaine Hudson has calculated that of all the fugitive slave advertisements he compiled covering the years 1788 to 1861, 42 percent referred to escapes in the years 1850–59.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Captive's Quest for Freedom
Fugitive Slaves, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, and the Politics of Slavery
, pp. 180 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats No formats are currently available for this content.
×