The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

The History of Oxmoor and Cottonwood

Alexander Scott Bullitt descended from refugee French Huguenots who had first came to America in 1685. They first came to the British colonies through Maryland, then settled in Virginia. Alexander Scott Bullitt, born in 1761, served in the Virginia House of Delegates until taking the Cumberland Road into Kentucky in 1784. He came from a long line of enslavers, and his family’s wealth and status as politicians and enslavers directly influenced the land survey that carved out what would become Oxmoor plantation.

Alexander’s father-in-law was Colonel William Christian, a Virginia politician who helped negotiate the 1777 Treaty of the Long Island of the Holston between white settlers and the Cherokee. Bullitt married Christian's daughter, Priscilla, in 1786; Christian gifted the newlyweds a portion of his Beargrass land upon their marriage. Bullitt sold this land and bought what would become Oxmoor from Benjamin Sebastian in January 1787, 9 months after his father-in-law’s death. The Oxmoor plantation still stands as Oxmoor Farm and Historic Site.

In an 1862 letter, William C. Bullitt stated that the money he made from enslaved labor composed four-fifths of his estate.

The Bullitt family collected most of their wealth from hiring out the people they enslaved to other enslavers or businesspeople. Many of the people enslaved by the Bullitt family were sent to work in rope walks, as apprentices to tradespeople, or as farm laborers, sometimes being hired out for more than a year at a time. These hiring contracts are where we find the traces of enslaved people most frequently. The enslaved people that weren’t hired out worked in the Oxmoor hemp fields, breaking hemp that would be used in a variety of products. Enslaved women at Oxmoor worked in the home as chefs, maids, and wetnurses.

Letters from William C. Bullitt and Mildred Fry Bullitt during 1861 discuss a possible move to Cottonwood, a plantation in Henderson County, Kentucky, purchased by William C. Bullitt in 1858.  Bullitt deeded a portion of the property to his son-in-law, Dr. Henry Chenoweth, on January 1, 1860. The move to a more rural location may have allowed the Bullitt family to have more control over the people they enslaved by keeping them away from opportunities to seek freedom in Louisville.

Only a select number of enslaved people traveled southward to the Cottonwood plantation.

Records and contemporary letters from both the Bullitt Family Papers-Oxmoor Collection and the Beverly Ballantine Farmington Collection allude to a possible cemetery on the Oxmoor property, where some enslaved people may have been buried. These graves are unmarked and unidentified so far, but the preservationists and historians at Oxmoor Farm are beginning to unearth possible archeological sites in 2022.