Free Black Community in Louisville

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky, United States
Surnames/tags: Kentucky Black_Heritage

Compiling records and historical data for free people of color in Louisville

By 1830, there were nearly 2,700,000 African Americans in the United States—13.7 percent of whom were free.

Between 1830 and 1860, the free African American population of Louisville increased from 232 to 1,917, or by 726 percent and Louisville became home to the largest concentration of free people of color both in Kentucky and in the upper South—west of Baltimore. Locally, free people of color did not live in segregated neighborhoods, per se, but were clustered in alleys, or on certain blocks or parts of certain streets. They were disproportionately young and female. Most were desperately poor, with the of owning and operating businesses blocked by laws enacted to prevent competition with whites and their employment opportunities limited to labor and domestic service. Still, work was plentiful and a handful of more fortunate free blacks worked as clerks, musicians, teachers, teamsters, blacksmiths, barbers and on the steamboats that plied the river.

Louisville was a decidedly hostile environment and weaving a few hundred free people of color into a community depended on astute leadership. In the 1830s, three individuals emerged as the principal architects of black Louisville. One, Shelton Morris, founded the first black business in Louisville in 1832, a barbershop and bathhouse under the old Galt House. Another, Washington Spradling, speculated in real estate and, by the 1860s, became the first African American in Kentucky worth more than $100,000. Together, as brothers-in-law, Spradling and Morris once owned much of the eastern Russell Area in the 1830s. Yet another,Eliza Curtis Hundley Tevis, became the only significant free black land-owner in the surrounding county when she purchased the land that developed into the Newburg/Petersburg community. By the 1850s, through their leadership and institution-building efforts, there were eight independent black churches in Louisville, most of which also sponsored small schools, in or near the old downtown area.

The establishment of a free black community in the midst of slavery was a defining moment in the struggle for freedom in Louisville. If the history of African Americans in Louisville begins with slavery, the history of the black community of Louisville begins with this free black community.^[1]

Jerry Wade, described as a mulatto, was a barber at the Galt House in Louisville, KY. He had purchased his freedom and that of his family.

Wade was fairly well off and rented one of his homes to his son and his family. The front of the house was rented to Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm and her husband, both of whom were white.

Jane Swisshelm, an abolitionist from Pennsylvania, was also an advocate for women's rights. Around 1838 she opened a school for African Americans in the Wade home. Both she and the students were harassed by whites; Wade was notified that his house would be burned down if the school continued. All of the students withdrew from the school.

For more see Half a Century, by Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm, 1815-1880; Jane Grey Swisshelm at the African American Registry website; Jane Grey Swisshelm Historical Marker at explorepahistory.com; and "How the First American Woman to Be a Political Journalist Got Her Start" at time.com; and Jane Swisshelm at amp.ww.en.freejournal.org. See also the entries for African American Schools in the NKAA Database.^[2]

Jefferson County was established in 1780, one of the three original counties created when Kentucky County was subdivided by the Virginia General Assembly. Jefferson County is located in the western part of the state along the Ohio River, bordered by four counties. It is named for Thomas Jefferson, who was then governor of Virginia and who would become the third U.S. President. Jefferson County is the most populated county in Kentucky.

The county seat is Louisville; George Rogers Clark is credited with founding Louisville in 1778; the city was named for King Louis XVI of France in 1780.

In the First Census of Kentucky, 1790, there were 3,857 whites, 903 enslaved, and five free persons. The 1800 population of Jefferson County was 8,754, according to the Second Census of Kentucky: 6,325 whites, 2,406 enslaved, and 23 free coloreds. In 1830 there was one free African American slave owner in Jefferson County and five in Louisville. By 1860, the population had increased to 79,060, according to the U.S. Federal Census, excluding the enslaved. Below are the number of slave owners, enslaved, and free Blacks and Mulattoes for 1850-1870.

• 1850 Slave Schedule

• • 2,394 slave owners
  • 8,814 Black slaves
  • 2,093 Mulatto slaves
  • 1,062 free Blacks
  • 589 free Mulattoes

• 1860 Slave Schedule

• • 2,664 slave owners
  • 6,786 Black slaves
  • 1,922 Mulatto slaves
  • 1,244 free Blacks
  • 762 free Mulattoes

• 1870 U.S. Federal Census

• • 13,944 Blacks
  • 4,940 Mulattoes
  • About 443 U.S. Colored Troops listed Jefferson County, KY as their birth location.

^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ https://louisville.edu/freedompark/historical-obelisks/the-free-black-community-of-louisville
2. ↑ “Early School in Louisville, KY,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed November 1, 2023, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/1505.
3. ↑ “Jefferson County (KY) Enslaved, Free Blacks, and Free Mulattoes, 1850-1870,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed November 2, 2023, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/2376.