Born in Africa, Born in Kentucky

Submitted by Reinette F. Jones, 9/26/2016

This entry has been completed in response to the reference question, "Where did the slaves in Kentucky come from?" The short answer is Africa, though this does not explore the specific countries and/or regions of Africa where enslaved people had lived.  A search at that level will require a review of slave ship records that can be matched with archival records of slave holders and the paper trail that reveals the lives of individual enslaved people who were sold and resold, all added in with a good deal of luck and chance. There are no holdings or collections of records in the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center that will give the origins of all Black persons who were held in enslavement in Kentucky. Below is one method of following the trail of the enslaved in and from Kentucky based on information from the former enslaved's perspectives. 

In 1850, there were a few free Black persons in Kentucky who were noted in the U.S. Census as born in Africa. They may have been formerly enslaved in the U.S., but they had not forgotten that they came from Africa. The same can be said of the thousands of others who were enslaved in 1850; they too knew of their origins even though the enslaved were not listed by name in the census nor were their birth locations noted.

Daniel Clarke (1795-1872) is one such person who was born in Africa and enslaved in Kentucky who remembered that he was born in Africa near a coast, even though Kentucky is given as his birth location in the 1870 U.S. Census. Passing on the knowledge of one's origins to the next generation would have been an oral form of record keeping that was left in the hands of the first generation of Africans born in the United States.

After enslavement ended, there was an opportunity for the information to be noted on a much larger scale in the census records. But in reality, there were only about 2,200 Blacks and Mulattoes who had Africa noted as their birth location in the 1870 U.S. Census, a very small number given that there were over 4,800,000 Blacks and Mulattoes counted in the 1870 U.S. Census. The numbers represent the descendants of African-born persons who survived the passage to a new land where they were enslaved and their descendants continued to be enslaved for more than two and a half centuries [source: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database].

To have Africa noted as a birth location in the census meant that the information was important to somebody, whether that somebody was the individual being enumerated or the census taker who made the note. It should also be taken into consideration that not everyone in the United States who was Black and born in Africa came to the United States in enslavement. Within each census, there was a small group of Black persons from African countries who arrived in the U.S. as free persons; however, the census records can be quite difficult to decipher concerning who arrived as a free person and who received their freedom from enslavement.

The 1870 U.S. Census was the first attempt to gain data on foreign born parents - "a real boon in identifying immigrant ancestors" [source: "1870 Census" an Ancestry.com website]. The heading of column 10 in the 1870 U.S. Census sheet was labeled "Place of Birth, Naming State or Territory of U.S.; or the Country, if of foreign birth." The headings of columns 11 and 12 on the U.S. Census sheet read "Parentage: Father of Foreign Birth / Mother of Foreign Birth." According to the 1870 Instructions to Assistant Marshals, "If of Foreign birth, the Country will be named as specifically as possible. ... The inquiries in columns numbered 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, and 20, are of such a nature that these columns only require to be filled when the answer to the inquiry is "Yes."" 

Though the answer would have been "Yes" for many African Americans, the term "foreign born parents" and "immigrant ancestors" did not apply to the formerly enslaved born in Africa or the African-born parents of the formerly enslaved. These people were not considered immigrants because they had come to the United States as property, a status that was upgraded to each being a person with U.S. citizenship in 1868 with the Ratification of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution [Library of Congress website].

The 1870 census instruction manual said nothing about African Americans being citizens or not being citizens. What is found most often in terms of "Parentage" of African Americans on the 1870 census sheets is nothing: the columns are blank, as is the case of Daniel Clarke, mentioned earlier. In his case and others, the column for birth location lists a state in the U.S.

In the search of Kentucky-born Black or Mulatto persons with African-born parents, there were no names found in the 1870 Census, but at least seven persons were noted as born in Africa and living in Kentucky. The numbers would increase when the 1880 Census was completed (see table below). Those enumerated were old, with estimated birth years as early as the mid to late 1700s. Perhaps it was an end of life decision that made them want Africa noted in the census record, which was a government document that would show that their parents were born outside the U.S. Or perhaps it was the decision of the individual census taker who noted the birth location. The Instructions to Enumerators for 1880 is not available on the U.S. Census Bureau website, but it was for this particular census that the enumerators were selectively hired and were better trained than the U.S. marshals who had been hired in the past to collect the census data [source: "Census Instructions," a U.S. Census Bureau website].

Sometimes the census taker wrote the word "Africa" or the abbreviation "Afr." For those born in Kentucky, records for African Americans whose parents were born in Africa were first found within the 1880 census. This is a plus for researchers because, though the parent birth location data was originally requested to help the U.S. government to classify and track immigrants in the United States, the data are also useful to African American families in determining the arrival of their ancestors in the United States. The data may also be used to track persons brought from Africa and enslaved in the U.S. and who were at some point in Kentucky.

The notation of Africa as a birth location in the census records is just as valid and as accurate or inaccurate as the noted birth location of all others born outside the United States. Another source for locating birth locations is early Kentucky death certificates. In the table below are some of the names, birth years, and other information about Black persons said to be born in Africa and living in Kentucky as well as those who were Kentucky natives with parents who were born in Africa. There are also names of persons who were residing in Kentucky but were born in other states. Included are only the names of those who were born prior to the Ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution [Library of Congress website]. The table covers the 30-year time period from 1850-1880.

For more information on the psychology of enslavement, see Slavery and Social Death, by Orlando Patterson; Cultural Trauma, by Ron Eyerman; How America's First Settlers Invented Chattel Slavery, by David K. O'Rourke; and Roots Matter, by Paula Owens Parker.