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There are more notable African Americans with Kentucky roots and ties than any one person knows about. Very little has been written about many of them and it is a challenge to find what was written in the past. For some, their stories have only been told by word of mouth. The Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA) has been developed as a finding aid to bring together a brief description of pertinent names, places, and events, and to list the sources where additional information may be found. This is not currently an all inclusive database, but we are working toward that goal and suggestions are welcomed.
Please use the Suggestion Form to submit new information or to suggest corrections or new entries in the NKAA database. We really do want to hear from you.
Did You Know?...
Betty Young was a free black woman who lived in Lexington, KY, in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. She and her husband, Thomas Young, had been slaves belonging to Nathaniel Wilson, but Thomas purchased his own and his wife's freedom sometime prior to 1806. Dr. Basil Duke, then a practicing physician in Lexington, administered the estate of Nathaniel Wilson and filed the manumissions. In 1826, Nathaniel Wilson's widow, Margaret, took oath that the Youngs had been free for many years and had paid her husband for their freedom in full. The proof of their freedom was formally recorded with the Fayette County Court in 1828 and was prompted by Betty Young's purchase of her son Jim's freedom from the estate of John Springle; Betty formally emancipated her son later that year. Betty Young was listed as the head of her household in Lexington in the 1810 and the 1820 censuses; her husband had probably died by 1810 since he was not listed as head of household. She was one of only 208 free African American citizens in Fayette County in 1810 (compared to 7,664 slaves in the county in the same year). For more see the Betty Young entry in NKAA.
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