1840 Uprisings
Burning barns, destroying farm equipment, and harming livestock were common forms of resistance to enslavement. These methods were a way for enslaved people to strike enslavers through their wallets and for enslaved peoples to simultaneously destroy the means of their oppression and subjugation.
Uprisings and resistance efforts began somewhere before December 1839, after an abolitionist meeting that "was held at Gilmon's Sunday, & three companies organized, which commenced operations by riding till 12 o'clock that night & plunger 8 guns." After the uprisings, three Black men were arrested in the same area, but Alexander Scott Bullitt's testimony doesn't state if the men were free or enslaved.
According to Mildred Ann Bullitt's testimony on May 19th, an enslaver's hemp house was lit on fire by enslaved people and/or abolitionists. Other enslavers in Jefferson County claimed that the unknown fire-starters planned to burn the Bullitt’s hemp house as well, stating: “Old Bullitt’s is next.”
Two brothers, Jim and Jack, were arrested around May 26th, 1840, for starting the first hemp house fire, but it’s unclear if Jim and Jack actually organized the fire or were falsely accused. They had been enslaved on two separate plantations. Nevertheless, they were hung for starting the fire, but the fight for freedom would continue after them.
In a letter from Mildred Ann Bullitt to her son, Joshua, she talks of the disagreement between Austin Peay and her husband William C. Bullitt, A. Smith, and George Philips over Bullitt, Smith, and Philips breaking up a "black meeting" at Peay's farm. The meetings were stopped because of the recent enslaved uprisings in the area.
On July 18th, 1840, the Farmington plantation’s hemp house, owned by the Speed family, was attacked two months after the first fire. The fire was so large that the people enslaved at Oxmoor saw the flames over five miles away and told Mildred Ann Bullitt while she was writing a letter to her sons, John and Joshua.