Slavery at Big Bone — an early incident

Slavery at Big Bone,
and in Southern Boone County, Kentucky

Chapter 17

by

James Duvall, M. A.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896), and serialized June 1851 to April of the next year. It was published as a two volume book in March of 1852, and was an immediate success. The story was based upon Stowe's rather limited knowledge of slavery acquired in a few visits to Kentucky; it is likely the book would have had less impact had she possessed a more nuanced understanding of the situation in the South. Clarity of vision is important for propaganda, nevertheless, the book stands as a powerful indictment of slavery told in human terms. Stowe rose above her immediate purpose, and the book is not only highly readable, but is a classic of American literature, if not entirely for its literary quality, for its historical importance. I recommend it be read by every American. (The most interesting recent account of Mrs. Stowe's life is an essay by historian David McCullough, Brave Companions, etc.)

The response to the book was intense, certainly enough to provide at least some grounds for the famous remark supposed to have been made by Abraham Lincoln that Mrs. Stowe was the lady who started the Civil War. It is one of those remarks that was certainly made by someone, and Lincoln should have said it even if he really didn't. The primary reason for the sensational sales of the book, beyond the fact the the writing was good, and the story well-told, was that it was so highly controversial. Her assumptions and incidents were so often controverted that she soon felt obliged to defend her word by publishing another volume in support of the novel.

This was the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, released in 1853. It had brisk sales as well, and it contains primary material, such as letters from slaves detailing various atrocities they had suffered, an engraving of a slave with scars on his back, and so forth. It was not a large volume, but in its way was probably as powerful as the novel simply because the documents, however carefully they may have been selected, represented actual rather than fictional cases. Still it probably did not do much to change the opinion of many people one way or the other. It is certain that Mrs. Stowe, who had Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky connections, made an important contribution to the debate on slavery then raging through the nation, and this makes her a significant figure in American history.

The book was not well received in Kentucky and the South, for the most part, if I may be permitted an understatement. The response to the book at Big Bone was fairly representative of Boone County, one of the northernmost slave-holding counties in the nation -- the border of the border, as it were. The reception was similar in the rest of the South. The story of this reception at Big Bone begins in 1824.  This was a book entitled Abolitionism Unveiled, that was written in answer to Mrs. Stowe's novel.  This book is like Uncle Tom in that it is a fictional account. True, it is not so powerful as Mrs. Stowe's book, or was it so well written, as the author was not a professional writer like her. (She was phenomenally prolific, averaging a book a year for thirty years.) One would hardly expect so much from the Sheriff of Boone County.

Henry Field James (1799 - 1870) married Francis Garnett in 1824, the same year that Squire Gray, the main character in Abolitionism Unveiled, moved to Big Bone. There were a number of points of correspondence between the two men. They had both been born in Virginia, in the same month of the same year, January 1799, just a few days apart. James was the son of Daniel F. James (1764 - 1845) a Baptist minister from Culpepper County, Virginia, who migrated early to Boone County. [Spencer, History of Kentucky Baptists, p. 416-417.] Both were Boone County farmers, Squire Gray had his seat at the Mouth of Big Bone Creek, James lived just a few miles upriver on Woolper Creek, both were slave owners, both men had held the office of Justice of the Peace in Boone County, and both were highly interested in the question of abolition. Like Squire Gray, doubtless it could be said of James: "Whenever the subject was named, his eyes beamed with fire, and the vast fund of information he possessed in relation to it, was poured forth with warmth and energy." ( Abolitionism Unveiled, p. 9)

In 1850, while Mrs. Stowe was writing her book, James was Sheriff of Boone County. The appearance of Uncle Tom must have made his blood boil. It was obvious to Henry James that Mrs. Stowe had not the slightest idea of what she was talking about. Everything in his knowledge, experience, and worldview contradicted the message and content of that book. It was a challenge he could not allow to pass unanswered.

Probably the most amazing thing about Abolitionism Unveiled is the fact that it exists. Many people read books that make their blood boil: "I'm going to write a book!" is a familiar refrain; yet how few people actually write one. Most people are content to discuss the offending book with like-minded family or friends. A few perhaps rise to actually publishing a scathing review — Stowe's book certainly got its share of those — but how many people actually get around to publishing a 250 page novel in response to one they don't like? It is a measure of Mr. James's feeling that he wrote an answer to Uncle Tom's Cabin and published it in 1856, thereby becoming Boone County's first published novelist. (Boone County's other novelist, John Uri Lloyd, was but seven years old at the time.)

James owned 15 slaves in 1850, according to the national census taken that year. There were a total of 2,104 slaves recorded in Boone County that year. Kentucky was the third most populous of the slave states that year, and the number of slaves in the state was exceed only by Virginia and Tennessee.


Note:  The saga of slavery at Big Bone will continue in a later installment.  I will continue to add materials from the huge amount of MS I have accumulated in my research and writing about the history of Big Bone, Boone County, and Northern Kentucky.

James Duvall, M. A.
Director
Big Bone University:  A Think Tank, Research Institute, & Public Policy Center
Big Bone, Kentucky
Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem.