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Information about 9 enslaved persons in Jefferson County, Kentucky is found in legal documents from 1820, 1822 and 1835 – involving my white 2x great grandfather Robert Burton Buckner (1795-1863), along with members of his extended family. Robert Buckner was a merchant living in Louisville until his retirement, when he moved to Brandenburg and purchased two houses there.

January 8, 1820:
1. SIMON (25, born 1795) was purchased by Robert Buckner of Louisville from his first wife’s brother Richard C. Meriwether (1798-1828), who had inherited Simon as a child from his own deceased father James Meriwether (d. 1801). Simon’s purchase price as an adult in 1820 was $500.
2. PEGGY (age not mentioned) was sold by Robert Buckner to Richard C. Meriwether as part of the purchase of Simon. Peggy’s purchase price was $400, and the remainder of Simon’s cost was paid in produce worth $60 plus $40 in cash.

October 17, 1822:
Ownership of two enslaved men was transferred by a bond to Robert Buckner of Louisville from his brother Thomas Buckner, who had formerly purchased both of the enslaved men from the same Richard C. Meriwether.
3. ANTHONY (age not mentioned)
4. ?????? (writing illegible, age not mentioned)

June 9, 1835:
Five enslaved persons – a mother and her four children – were purchased by Robert Buckner of Louisville from his second wife’s brother Benjamin F. Booker (1807-1867) and Benjamin’s father-in-law James McCann:
5. RACHEL (32, b. 1803)
6. JEREMIAH (11, b. 1824)
7. …..…..IS (8, b. 1829, writing partially illegible)
8. CORNELIA (6, b. 1829)
9. MARTHA JANE (6 months, b.1834)
Five years earlier the U.S. Census of 1830 had listed Booker and McCann living in the same household with 4 enslaved persons, evidently Rachel and the 3 oldest children, of whom 2 were male, so we can assume that “..…..IS” was a boy.

Unfortunately, I have not found records or other information about what happened later to any of these nine people whose lives were arbitrarily disrupted, and their continued enslavement facilitated, by the actions of my ancestor Robert Buckner. Examination of U.S. Census records for 1820–1840 reveals that none of the nine (identified by age and gender) remained long under his “”ownership”” – with the possible exception of 1830, when there was a new adult enslaved male recorded in Buckner’s household, added to the young enslaved woman with children who had also been counted in 1820. The new person recorded in 1830 might have been Anthony or the other young man from the 1822 sale.