Family Separation

ID: 2574 ~ Source: Courtesy of the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2004672776/ ~ Date: 1860

This file appears in: Courthouse Square and Mechanics’ Row Historic District

An illustration of a family separated at auction printed in an 1860 New York anti-slavery book.

This file appears in: Courthouse Square and Mechanics’ Row Historic District

Courthouse Square and Mechanics’ Row Historic District

The first courthouse in what was then Washington, Kentucky (now part of Maysville) often was the site of auctions of enslaved Black individuals on the courthouse grounds. In 1833, while visiting one of her students, Harriet Beecher Stowe took a walk…