1. Cheapside Square: The Upper South’s Slave Trading Center
Throughout the antebellum period, Fayette County had one of the highest concentrations of enslaved people in Kentucky. Cheapside Square, nestled directly beside the Fayette County Courthouse in downtown Lexington, was the epicentral slave trading mart of the Upper South. On “Court Days” (the first Monday of each month), thousands gathered to buy, sell, and separate enslaved families. Traders shipped enslaved Kentuckians downriver to labor in the cotton and sugar plantations of Mississippi and Louisiana.
2. Camp Nelson: The Gateway to Freedom
During the Civil War, liberation arrived through military service. Established in 1863 as a Union forward supply depot on the limestone bluffs of the Kentucky River, Camp Nelson became Kentucky’s primary enlistment center for African American men beginning in June 1864.
Over 10,000 Black men risked execution and recapture to enlist in eight USCT regiments at Camp Nelson, making it the third-largest recruitment center for Black troops in the United States. Furthermore, despite severe military opposition, thousands of wives and children fled to Camp Nelson, establishing a permanent refugee community that forced the U.S. Congress in March 1865 to pass legislation freeing the families of all enlisted Black soldiers.
3. Isaac Murphy & The Golden Age of Black Jockeys
Following emancipation, African American horsemen dominated Lexington’s Thoroughbred industry. Born into slavery near Frankfort in 1861, Isaac Murphy moved to Lexington with his mother following the death of his father, a USCT soldier. Training at Lexington tracks, Murphy achieved unprecedented racing mastery:
- Won three Kentucky Derbys: aboard Buchanan (1884), Riley (1890), and Kingman (1891).
- Compiled an astonishing 44% winning percentage over his career (winning 628 of 1,412 races)—a record that stands unchallenged in modern turf history.
- First jockey inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.
4. 21st-Century Civic Memorialization
In October 2017, the city of Lexington removed Confederate statues of John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge from Cheapside Square, relocating them to the Lexington Cemetery. Cheapside was re-envisioned as a commemorative civic space honoring African American resilience, civil rights leadership, and the enduring legacy of the USCT.
Return to the master topical hub: The Definitive History of Lexington, Kentucky.
The Making of the Horse Capital: Limestone Soil, Bluegrass Pastures & Thoroughbred Royalty
How Ordovician limestone water and elite breeding created the epic multi-billion dollar equine empire of Central Kentucky.
The Lexington History Knowledge Vault
Explore the definitive chapters of Central Kentucky history across our authoritative Bluegrass topical cluster:
The foundational master chronicle spanning 250 years of Bluegrass history from pioneer settlement to global equine leadership.
Confederate occupations by John Hunt Morgan, Union martial law, divided families, and strategic border-state turmoil.
Lincoln’s extended visits to Main Street, witnessing slavery at Cheapside, and the Todd family’s tragic Civil War divide.
How pioneer Lexington established the first university west of the Alleghenies, training America’s early statesmen and doctors.
The Great Compromiser’s life at his beloved Ashland estate, the American System economic plan, and the preservation of the Union.
The grim reality of the South’s largest slave market at Cheapside and the heroic sanctuary of USCT soldiers at Camp Nelson.
How Ordovician limestone water and elite breeding created the epic multi-billion dollar equine empire of Central Kentucky.
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