Rose, a Woman of Colour: A Slave's Struggle for Freedom in the Courts of Kentucky

By Arnold Taylor

This book is the true story of Rose Gatliff, a slave who used the courts of Kentucky to wrest freedom from those who held her family in bondage. Despite being held in a slave State and despite her rights being judged by white, slaveholding men, she prevailed. Her persistence, determination and intelligence made her, as one witness phrased it, "the best lawyer" her family had.

This is also the story of the witnesses for and against Rose, all white, who speak to us in their own words, taken from case documents in the State Archives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Follow Rose as she is taken from her mother in Virginia to Kentucky and passed from Master to Master until 1833, when she began a legal process covering four States, multiple Kentucky counties, four trials, an appeal and nearly nineteen years and see why her descendants should be proud of her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 15, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595616022

Arnold Taylor

Arnold Taylor is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and the University of Kentucky College of Law. He lives in Edgewood, Kentucky, with his wife, Diana, and is a partner in a Northern Kentucky law firm.

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Copyright © 2008 by Arnold Taylor

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ISBN: 978-0-595-50661-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-595-61602-2 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

THE STRUGGLE BEGINS

CHAPTER 2

ROSE’S EARLY YEARS

CHAPTER 3

CHARLES GATLIFF

CHAPTER 4

SLOW PROGRESS

CHAPTER 5

THE FIRST TRIAL

CHAPTER 6

THE SECOND TRIAL

CHAPTER 7

THE THIRD TRIAL

CHAPTER 8

THE APPEAL

CHAPTER 9

THE FOURTH TRIAL

CHAPTER 10

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

CHAPTER 11

WHY WAS ROSE SUCCESSFUL?

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX A

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF SLAVERY LAWS IN KENTUCKY

APPENDIX B

WITNESS LIST

APPENDIX C

INSTRUCTIONS BY JUDGE FARROW

BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOTES

PREFACE

While conducting family genealogical research, I read a passage in the Will of an ancestor, Charles Gatliff, referring to a lawsuit for their freedom by a family of negroes. I had the ordinary knowledge about emancipation and the Underground Railroad, but was unaware of the legal processes a slave might use to obtain freedom. At the Kentucky State Archives in Frankfort, Kentucky, I confirmed that a woman named Rose had filed such a lawsuit, and from simple curiosity I reviewed some of the case file. As a lawyer, I was interested in the legal aspect of Rose’s case, while as a person I became intrigued by the evident strength of her character.

I had no plan to consolidate the archived information into an organized work, but then I encountered Becoming Free, Remaining Free by Judith Kelleher Schafer.¹ Her work describes efforts by slaves in New Orleans to secure and keep their freedom through the courts of Louisiana, and it was hailed as revealing an unstudied aspect of slavery. At the same time, I was exploring the literature regarding slavery in Kentucky, and it became apparent that little information about lawsuits for freedom by Kentucky slaves has been published.²

I became convinced that the life of this remarkable woman should become known, although this is not a story just about Rose; it is her story told by white people, so this book is also about them, the men and women involved in the case as it progressed through the courts of the Commonwealth. I have provided information about the lawyers, parties, witnesses, and jurors involved in Rose’s case, to allow the reader to gain some insight into their backgrounds and personalities. My goal was to always let them speak for themselves, in their own words—sometimes eloquent, sometimes nearly illiterate, but always genuine.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The following people have my thanks: Dr. Raymond Hebert, Professor of History at Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, Kentucky, for his review of a draft of the work and his advice; Richard Clay, Esq., of Danville, Kentucky, for the photograph of the painting of Judge John L. Bridges; Robert J. Reynolds, of the Montgomery County, Kentucky, Historical Society, for the photograph of the painting of Judge Kenaz Farrow; the staff of the Special Collections department of the Kentucky Historical Society and the staff of the Kentucky State Archives for their kind assistance; and Peggi Wilson, for her struggles to properly format the work.

And finally, my deepest thanks to my wife, Diana, who encouraged me to tell Rose’s story.

INTRODUCTION

Margaret Garner killed her child to take her out of slavery, while other slaves escaped and lived. But death and escape were not the only ways a slave might seize her own freedom. This is the story of Rose—later Rose Gatliff—who freed herself and her family through her persistent use of the Kentucky legal system, despite being held as a slave, despite having children held in slavery and despite living in a slave state. Kentucky law not only granted her access to the courts—there were lawyers who undertook her representation, there were judges who enforced her rights and there were white, male, slaveholding jurors who declared her a free person.

Captain Charles Gatliff died in Whitley County, Kentucky in 1838, owning several slaves. His Will made provision for one female slave to be particularly well treated and he emancipated several others, but Article 18 of his Will directed that his Executor carry on the suit I have in Court respecting the family of negroes that has brought suit for their freedom and do the best he can. In fact, the Kentucky State Archives holds pleadings and depositions in lawsuits filed by Rose, a Woman of Colour, and her family, scattered among the files of the several circuit courts through which the case progressed.³ The case documents inform us that in early 1833 Rose was passing the Whitley County home of Solomon Bunch, when he commented to her that she was so white she ought to be free; she replied that if she had her rights, she would be free.⁴ Those words were the seeds of a legal battle that would span four states, multiple Kentucky counties, four trials, one appeal, and nineteen years.

CHAPTER 1

THE STRUGGLE BEGINS

When the sun rose shortly after six o’clock on Thursday, September 5, 1833, Rose may have already been on her way from her home on Clear Fork to the Whitley County courthouse at Williamsburg. On that day, attorneys Elisha Smith⁵ and James S. Henderson filed suits for her freedom and for the freedom of some of her children and grandchildren. In lawsuits for freedom, the slave had to sue the persons in whose possession he or she was held, which would not necessarily be the owner of the slave, so Rose sued James T. Curd and Cornelius Gatliff, a son of Charles.⁶ How and when Rose came into the possession of Cornelius Gatliff is unknown. No instrument of conveyance to Cornelius from Charles has been found, but in a draft Will prepared for Charles Gatliff in 1831, there is an unfinished reference to my Rose, so any conveyance to Cornelius was between 1831 and September of 1833. In any event, Cornelius died in 1836 and his Will disposed of several slaves, one of whom was Roƒe. As to Curd, it was common for a person with excess slave capacity to hire slaves to those who were in need of services, such as domestic service in a town home, or to a farmer who was unable to buy a slave, so it is likely that Rose had been hired out to Curd by Cornelius Gatliff.⁷

Other members of Rose’s family sued in Whitley Circuit Court. Her children, Jack and Peggy, sued Charles Gatliff. Her grandchildren, Ginn (later called Jane), Betsy, Bird (later called Mary Ann), Cynthia, Missouri,⁸ Siotha and Emily sued Andrew Craig by their next friend, Amos Bennett. (A next friend was an adult person who was willing to bring the suit for the benefit of a minor, who was legally incapable of bringing the action.) On September 20, 1833, Rose’s daughter, Sally (by her next friend, Amos Bennett), filed suit against James B. Dorton in Knox Circuit Court. The suits were filed in different counties, because proper venue was the county in which the possessor resided. Rose’s daughter, Nancy, did not sue, as she had already gained her freedom in an earlier lawsuit against Charles, discussed below.

The Whitley and Knox County suits did not include Rose’s daughters, Polly and Fanny. On September 9, 1833, they were in the Roane County jail in Kingston, Tennessee, and they were suing Charles Gatliff in Roane Circuit Court by their next friend, Jeremiah R. Hays. On September 10, 1833, Charles gave his Knoxville attorney, George W. Churchwell, a promissory note and security in land and slaves, in consideration of Churchwell serving as security for Gatliff’s appearance in the Tennessee court on March 10, 1834.⁹ Why Polly and Fanny were in Roane County is unknown, and the records of the case in the Roane County Archives are not informative. Travelers reached Kingston by the road through Cumberland Gap to Knoxville and thence to Kingston by road or down the Clinch or Tennessee Rivers, and it is doubtful that Polly and Fanny went south if they were fugitives, so they had probably been hired out.

Rose and her family were allowed to prosecute their suits as paupers. The Whitley County defendants were to enter into bonds to guarantee the Plaintiffs’ presence at the next term of court, failing which the Whitley County Sheriff was to hire the Plaintiffs out until the first day of the next term of court, requiring bond and security from the hirer. The amounts of the bonds may reflect the respective values of the Plaintiffs. For Rose, the bond was two thousand dollars; for Jack, one thousand dollars; for Siotha, six hundred dollars; for Emily, six hundred dollars; for Missouri, eight hundred dollars; for Cynthia, six hundred dollars; for Bird, eight hundred dollars; for Betsy, seven hundred dollars; and for Peggy, seven hundred dollars. No mention of Jeff or Ginn/Jane is made, and Polly and Fanny were not in the Kentucky cases at that time.

But this is in the middle of things. Rose’s journey does not begin with her lawsuit or Charles Gatliff, although she had been in the possession of the Gatliffs for over thirty years—her story begins in Virginia, in the late eighteenth century.

CHAPTER 2

ROSE’S EARLY YEARS

Rose was born in Virginia, no earlier than 1772 and no later than 1780.¹⁰ Her mother was variously called Jenny, Jean, Jinn, Jenny, Jean, Jin, Indian Jenny, or Free Jenny, but in this text she will be called Jenny.¹¹ Jenny was born about 1751 and Joseph Jenkins brought her to Botetourt County, Virginia.¹² Some witnesses said she was an Indian who was captured and refused exchange, and if the testimony about Jenny being captured is true, it may have been during the Cherokee War of 1760–62, but it was also said that Jenkins acquired her by reason of his marriage to an Astin.¹³ On December 1, 1780, Jenkins gave a bill of sale for one Mulatto Wench (a Slave named Jean with her two Children Roƒetta and Bob) to James Lauderdale, Jr., a resident of Botetourt County.¹⁴ Lauderdale was sometimes called Leatherdale; in the 1794 Botetourt County, Virginia, tax list he is Laudderdail. Jenny had another child, Jerry, in the next few years after the sale to Lauderdale.¹⁵ While Jenny often lived with the Lauderdales, she was frequently seen working elsewhere as a cook, on the Catawba River, at Big Lick (present Roanoke), in Botetourt County and in adjoining counties, and her work as a cook away from the Lauderdales became an important issue in Rose’s litigation.¹⁶ Jenny had a sister, Dinah, or Diana, who was brought to Botetourt County by Joshua Phips, who sold her to Thomas Rowland.¹⁷

Rose, who was called Rosetta when she lived with the Lauderdales, suffered a severe burn on her face when she was about 4 years old, and the resulting scar was a distinctive feature, frequently mentioned in depositions.¹⁸ She was a sprightly smart child, with straight yellow hair and blue eyes, and she was about as white as the common run of any white child in the country.¹⁹ She was often mistaken for one of Mrs. Lauderdale’s own children, or a child of Lauderdale himself.²⁰ Frequent expressions of curiosity about Rose’s parentage irritated Mrs. Lauderdale to no end and she eventually insisted that Rose be sold, so Lauderdale sold Rose to Samuel Gill around 1784.²¹ Lauderdale’s son, John, testified: visitors … would frequently take her for one of my father’s children and it was on that account that my mother took exceptions to her and it was through my mother’s influence that my father sold her.²² As we will see, this would not be the last time Rose was sold because of female antipathy. (To simplify, Rose will always be described in this text as being sold, although a basic issue in the case was whether she was sold as a slave or bound out as a servant.) Rose was about 8 years old when she was sold to Gill.²³ No more than two months after the sale, Gill’s family and Rose left Virginia, bound for Kentucky.²⁴ Before