duties, enslaved women on small farms would have also been charged with minding the children of their owners. Without a doubt, the work was exhausting and perpetual.
Enslaved Kentuckians would have been on call virtually around the clock, with little privacy or time to themselves. Many did not even have separate living quarters. Added to that misery, those enslaved on small farms had more daily contact with their owners, which proved harmful, in most cases. The greater contact with owners increased the likelihood that they would endure not only more racist verbal insults and physical assaults, but sexual abuse as well. Given their low numbers per farm, Kentucky slaves were geographically isolated from other African Americans. In short, enslaved Kentuckians did not have much access to, or opportunity to participate in, a viable community. Without the comfort and support of a community, despair, isolation, and hopelessness could easily consume them.8
Although enslavement on small Kentucky farms clearly was difficult, the disposition and character of the owner trumped all other conditions in determining the quality of bondage. Being overworked, isolated, and overly exposed to indignities were characteristic of slavery on small Kentucky farms. An exacting, abusive, and cruel owner made things worse. To be enslaved on a small farm with such an owner was—as far as the Garner family was concerned—worse than death. The Garners’ collective and individual histories teach us that the brutality or mildness of slavery depended not just on the region or the kind of crop enslaved people tended to, but the character of the owner.
THE GAINES FAMILY
Archibald Kinkead Gaines, born 1 January 1808, was the eighth of thirteen children of Susan Elizabeth Mathews (who went by Elizabeth) and Abner LeGrand Gaines. Native Virginians, the Gaineses had migrated to Boone County, Kentucky, in the early nineteenth century. Abner Gaines purchased 236 acres of land, which lay at a transportation junction in Boone County. Soon a small settlement called Gaines Crossroads sprang up near his land. Gaines Crossroads and the town born of it eventually became Walton, Kentucky. Abner operated a farm, a mail stage line, and a tavern that was frequented by travelers en route to Lexington. In addition to running his tavern, he also acted as the town’s justice of the peace and sheriff. Upon his death in 1839, Abner left nearly all of his estimated $12,000–$15,000 in wealth to his youngest daughter, including his farm, home, tavern, livestock, and two slaves. He willed the other Gaines children $1,000 each and various keepsakes. Elizabeth, his widow and the family matriarch, inherited only the furniture and a carriage. Shortly after her husband’s death, she moved in with their second-oldest son, John Pollard Gaines, at his farm in nearby Richwood.9
The Gaineses had a high sense of obligation to one another. Just as John Pollard had done with the family matriarch, other family members took in relatives from time to time. For example, it was not unusual for an uncle to have his niece or nephew in his home for some time. The naming patterns in the Gaines family also reveal that they honored their kin with each birth. Sons were not named after their fathers, as one might expect, but received the first or middle names of an uncle, brother, grandfather, or even family friend. Male names John, Pollard, Abner, and LeGrand were recycled in several generations in various combinations. Similarly, Gaines women were named after their grandmothers or aunts. Matriarchs’ maiden names also were utilized. For example, many of Abner and Elizabeth’s children, grandchildren, and beyond received the middle name Mathews, which was Elizabeth’s maiden name. The only child who was not named in this tradition was Archibald Kinkead Gaines, who was named after Abner’s friend, Captain Archibald Kinkead, who lived in Woodford County, Kentucky.10
Several of the Gaines men built lucrative careers as attorneys, slaveholders, and politicians. John Pollard Gaines and Richard Mathews Gaines were successful attorneys who also owned lucrative farms and plantations. Richard once had served as the US attorney in Mississippi before relocating to Chicot County, Arkansas, where he owned the Mason Lake cotton plantation. James Mathews Gaines was one of the three wealthiest farmers in Boone County; his farm was valued at $50,000 in 1850 (roughly $25 million today). Another brother, Benjamin Pollard Gaines, owned a 5,000-acre cotton plantation in Chicot County, Arkansas, and seventy-seven slaves, and Abner LeGrand owned a cotton plantation in New Orleans. The Gaines brothers, like their father Abner, made brilliant real estate purchases that happened to lie at transportation crossroads like their father’s had. For example, William constructed a shipping landing on his plantation along the Mississippi River in Chicot County, Arkansas, called Gaines Landing, which became one of the busiest shipping ports on the Mississippi River from 1830 through the Civil War. He also pioneered the development of Hot Springs, Arkansas. A couple of other sons built respectable military careers. Most noteworthy is the career of John Pollard Gaines of Richwood, Kentucky, who served in both the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. In the Mexican War, Gaines surrendered to Mexican General José Vicente Miñón at Encarnación in late January 1847 and subsequently was taken as a prisoner of war. When news of his captivity made it back to Boone County, the story had changed to his having been captured—not that he had surrendered. In 1847, the community honored that presumed bravery by electing Gaines to Congress in absentia as a Whig.11
Archibald K. Gaines took a more circuitous route to success than his brothers. In his twenties, he moved to St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, to seek his fortune—probably following a brother or uncle.12 He returned to Kentucky soon thereafter and was appointed United States Postmaster in Walton on 16 April 1832. This is the same post that previously had been held by his older brother James.13 The job offered some steady income and respectability, but did not lead to wealth. In 1836, Archibald K. Gaines reputedly served in the Texas Army of Sam Houston during the Battle for Texas Independence. Afterward, he moved to Chicot County, Arkansas, where several of his brothers, Richard Mathews, William Henry, and Benjamin Pollard owned cotton plantations and managed Gaines Landing. Archibald K. Gaines worked as a land agent and may have also helped his brothers manage their plantations.14
Archibald married Margaret Ann Dudley of Scott County, Kentucky, on 26 August 1843 and she joined him in Arkansas. That union produced two children, Elizabeth, born in 1844, and John Dudley, born a year and a half later. A third child died in infancy two years later. Then in January 1849 tragedy struck Archibald when Margaret Ann, pregnant with their fourth child, fell down some stairs, receiving grave injuries. The baby was delivered stillborn, but she lingered on a few more days before finally succumbing to her injuries. Margaret’s dying wish was that her daughter, Elizabeth, be raised by her mother in Kentucky.15 Archibald Gaines returned to Kentucky with their two small children shortly after his wife’s death, likely to get assistance with raising them.
Around the same time, after serving just one term in Congress (1847–49), John Pollard Gaines—now released from captivity and back in Kentucky—lost his bid for reelection in the fall 1849 elections. Not long after that defeat, President Zachary Taylor appointed him governor of the Oregon Territory. John Pollard promptly sold his farm and his enslaved workforce to his younger brother Archibald, who had recently returned to the area widowed, raising his children alone, and needing a fresh start. John practically gave the farm to his younger brother. The bill of sale between the brothers dated November 1849 indicates that Archibald purchased five bondspeople—including Peggy, Sam, Hannah, Harry, and Charlotte—for $2,500 from his elder brother. Peggy was just sixteen and likely pregnant with her eldest son at the time of the sale.16 Archibald K. Gaines as a slave master certainly would be a grand experiment.
Widowed and desperately needing help raising his young children, Gaines turned to their aunt Elizabeth Dudley, Margaret’s younger sister, for assistance. Elizabeth was a familiar face, and both he and the children trusted her. The relationship between Gaines and his sister-in-law evolved from there, and the couple married at his church in Covington on 2 April 1850, just a little over a year after Margaret’s death. Their marriage may be unsettling to our modern sensibilities, but apparently, it was not at all unusual for Kentuckians to marry their deceased wives’ sisters, or even their own blood relatives, or in-laws, for that matter. Brothers John Pollard and Benjamin Pollard Gaines, for example, had married two women who were sisters. Endogamy, the practice of marrying a relative, apparently
