History of slavery in Kentucky

The history of slavery in Kentucky dates from the earliest permanent European settlements in the state, until the end of the Civil War. Kentucky was classified as the Upper South or a Border state, and enslaved African Americans represented up to 25% of the population before the Civil War, concentrated in the cities of Louisville and Lexington, both in the fertile Bluegrass Region, a center of tobacco plantations and horse farms.

Early Kentucky history was built on slave labor, and it was an integral part of the state's economy. From 1790 to 1860, the slave population of Kentucky was never more than one-quarter of the total population. After 1830, as tobacco production decreased in favor of less labor-intensive crops, many planters sold their slaves to markets in the Deep South, where the demand for agricultural labor rose rapidly as cotton cultivation was expanded. Kentucky's slave population was concentrated in the central "bluegrass" region of the state, which was rich in farmland. In 1850, 23 percent of Kentucky's white males held enslaved African Americans.

Early travelers to Kentucky in the 1750s and 1760s from Virginia brought their slaves with them. As permanent settlers started arriving in the late 1770s, especially after the American Revolution, they brought along slaves to clear and develop the land. Early settlements were called stations and developed around forts for protection against Native Americans, with whom there were numerous violent conflicts. Most of the early settlers were from Virginia, and they continued to rely on slave labor as they developed larger, more permanent plantations.

Planters who grew hemp and tobacco, which were labor-intensive crops, held more slaves than did smaller farmers who cultivated mixed crops. Subsistence farming could be done without any slave labor, although some subsistence farmers held a few slaves with whom they would work. Some owners also used enslaved African Americans in mining and manufacturing operations, for work on riverboats and along the waterfront, and to work in skilled trades in towns.

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