Dr. Ben Fitzpatrick Civil War Series Lecture

       The Narratives of Lewis and Milton Clarke, and their tale of avoiding the slave trade in Kentucky.  Dr. Ben Fitzpatrick has made their lives his focus during his educational career.  Recently at a lecture at Eastern Kentucky University, Fitzpatrick’s Alma-Matter, he brought to light the lives of Richmond Kentucky natives, Lewis and Milton Clarke.  Although they may not be well known today they were highly celebrated speakers in the abolitionist circuit.  Sympathizer J.C. Lovejoy helped dictate their story for an Abolitionist propaganda Narrative.   Their Narratives have been overshadowed today by more notorious figures like Fredrick Douglas. 

The lives of Lewis and Milton Clarke are not like the normal slave narratives you would have read.  Their father was a White Scotsman, named Daniel.  Their mother Letitia was the daughter of a Madison County slave owner Samuel Campbell, and a slave girl from his home.   Upon their Grandfathers death they were promised freedom in his will, but instead each of his Aunts and Uncles took siblings and their mother into their homes.

Fitzpatrick said in Lewis account of his life he was taken into his Aunt Mrs. Betsy Banton’s home also in Richmond, KY.  Lewis described his Aunt as a, “She spirit from hell”.   Whereas Milton, was taken in by another Aunt Judith whom he said was kind to him and had the, “virtues of humanity”.  Lewis worked for Mrs. Banton as a slave in her household, and Milton worked for His Aunt Judith’s husband, Joseph Logan, who ran a Tanner in Lexington, Ky.       

These brothers lived two very different lives as slaves.  Lewis had a very rough life filled with beatings and neglect.  Where Milton was given music lessons and was able to become a traveling musician.  For all their differences in where and how they were raised they did live similar lives.  They both were participants in the local slave trade.  They were hired out by their masters to do other work rather than on the land that they lived.  For several years they were able to move freely from job to job but the threat of being sent, “Down River” to a cotton plantation loomed over them.  At different points in time Lewis and Milton Clarke both became runaway slaves who crossed over into Ohio to hide from their owners. 

Northern sympathizers protected them and Abolitionist’s used their story to gain support for the cause.  Not much more is known about their lives other than their narratives.  But Fitzpatrick did say while on a circuit in Philadelphia, Cassius Clay recognized Milton and knew of him and his family.  Also something that Dr. Fitzpatrick said was puzzling, He mentioned that Milton at the time of his death in 1905 said on his death bed that he was not a mulatto and that he and his brother were actually white.  Lewis Clarke on the other hand maintained that he was a mulatto until his death.  But the question remains, where they actually telling the truth about who they were?  There is not much other than their narrative to prove their claim.  Was this all part of the Abolitionist propaganda?  The mystery of that question we will probably never know.        

 

Dr. Ben Fitzpatrick, Shadows of Blue and Grey: Civil War Lecture Series, February 28^th 2013.

Photos courtesy of: The University of North Carolina, http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/clarkes/clarkes.html