Resistance and Reprisal
In a letter to his brothers, Alexander Scott Bullitt writes that Tucker “has bought himself.” It is unclear who Tucker is or how he went about his self-emancipation. He does not appear in the collection after this. This item brings to light the difficulty in capturing a full history of enslaved people in these collections. Oftentimes, names are mentioned in passing in only one or two letters, making it near impossible to learn more about someone’s enslavement status, age, or who their enslaver was.
What remains of the story of one woman, Lucy, comes only from the perspective of Mildred Ann Bullitt. These sources accuse Lucy of a crime she likely did not commit and for which she was punished and torn apart from her family.
Lucy was enslaved by Mildred Ann Bullitt, who eventually sent Lucy to New Orleans for supposedly “poisoning” her. Since this document was written by Mildred Ann Bullitt, and the “bluestone” Mildred refers to is an uncommon mineral that is not poisonous to consume, it is unlikely that Lucy actually poisoned her enslaver in the manner Mildred describes.
In accusing Lucy of trying to poison her with blue stone, Mildred sent Lucy away to New Orleans: a common tactic among enslavers in Kentucky. Flattering narratives of the history of enslavement claim that Kentucky enslavers were “less violent” or “more easygoing” compared to their counterparts in the Deep South, but whatever perceived benevolence on the behalf of the enslaver always came with the threat of being sent Southward.
It’s important to note that Lucy’s brother and mother were held captive by a different enslaver: John Jacob. This is just one example of how family ties - even biological families - were split up from plantation to plantation. Lucy, according to Mildred Ann Bullitt, once killed her own child so that they would not be born in bondage. Information on Lucy's life after being sent to New Orleans are not included in the Bullitt Family Papers-Oxmoor Collection, and the rest of her story and family lineage remains unknown at present.
Even if Mildred’s accusation was true, Mildred did not attribute Lucy’s actions to her own free will: she blamed Lucy’s perceived actions on the abolitionists in Louisville.
Dehumanization, patronization, and subjugation have always been at the core of chattel slavery. Enslavers saw the people they enslaved as sub-human property. Many times, when enslaved people fought for freedom and equality on the plantation, the enslavers would refuse to admit their intelligence and personhood, instead seeing these resistance movements as a result of abolitionists “deceiving” enslaved people into believing in emancipation and freedom from bondage. Even in acts of defiance, enslaved people weren’t recognized as people, with their own thoughts and actions.