The Kentucky Union for the Moral and Religious Improvement of the Colored Race

The Kentucky Union for the Moral and Religious Improvement of the Colored Race was formed in 1834 with White members from several religious denominations in Kentucky; the members were referred to as the best religious leaders in the state. They were also referred to as the "Gradual Abolitionists" by author G. H. Barnes.

The group's purpose was to provide religious and moral instruction to the enslaved and to support their  gradual emancipation for colonization. Reverend H. H. Kavanaugh of Lexington, KY was president; the ten vice presidents were from various parts of Kentucky. A seven-member executive committee was located in Danville, KY, with Reverend John C. Young, Centre College, serving as the chair. The group produced a circular that was distributed to ministers of the gospel in Kentucky.

In 1835, the group brought before the Kentucky Legislature a bill that called for the gradual emancipation of the enslaved--the bill did not pass, losing by a narrow margin.

For more see The Religious Instruction of the Negroes. In the United States, by Charles C. Jones [available online at UNC Documenting the American South website]; The Evangelical War Against Slavery and Caste, by V. B. Howard; The Feminist Papers, by A. S. Rossi; The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus, by the  American Anti-Slavery Society [available online via Project Gutenberg]; and The Antislavery Impulse: 1830-1844, by G. H. Barnes.