July 5, 2025 • 33 mins
This 2022 episode starts with the story of John Bibb, credited with cultivating Bibb lettuce. But his family’s legacy, good and bad, is all tied to having enslaved people build their familial wealth.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, and Happy Saturday. So the Bib family has popped
up a couple of times in recent episodes, and we
actually talked about this family and its legacy in our
episode where we also covered the development of the variety
of lettuce named after them, the Bib Lettuce. That episode
ran on July fifth, twenty twenty two. During that episode,
(00:23):
we referenced the work of Lenay O'Neill, and she recently
published a book about the story and her connection to it,
titled Bib Country Unearthing My Family, Secrets of Land, Legacy
and Lettuce. That book is out now and it is
in my audiobook Q. I am very much looking forward
to reading it. And we are rerunning that twenty twenty
(00:44):
two episode on The Bib Family today. Enjoy Welcome to
Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm
Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy. This episode was supposed to be
(01:10):
another installment of eponymous food. Yeah, it went a different
way though it is not. It is little, but as
I got into the story of one of those foods,
it really unfurled quite quickly into a much bigger and
much more important story about the family of a man
who cultivated lettuce in his later life just as it
hits up. I promise there's another eponymous food coming at
(01:32):
some point, but it's not today. This story is I think,
really important because it offers a snapshot of a very
rich person's choice to emancipate his enslaved workforce, the way
his family received that information, and how their legacy, both
good and bad, is all tied to having enslaved people
(01:53):
building their familial wealth. Heads up, We're going to read
a lot from writings that were composed in the eighteen hundreds,
so of course some of the language there is a
bit outdated. Uh. But first we are going to talk
about bib lettuce and the man who cultivated it. Yes,
I love it when episodes go in totally different directions
(02:14):
from what they were playing, just a hard left. So
John Bigger bib who was born on October twenty seventh,
seventeen eighty nine, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. His parents,
Richard Bibb and Lucy Booker bib moved from Virginia to
Kentucky when John was about nine years old. We're going
(02:35):
to get back to Richard in a moment and talk
about him a lot more. They shifted around Kentucky for
a bit. First they lived in Fayette County and then
in Bullet, where Richard Bibb purchased assault works. Then they
went to Logan County and established a large and successful farm.
Bib's early education was largely under Joshua fry That was
(02:56):
a fellow Virginia who had moved to Mercer County, Kentucky.
Fry is a pretty interesting figure in Kentucky history because
when he moved there, he didn't think there was an
adequate educational system, so he opened up a school out
of his house, and then a lot of prominent people
in Kentucky's history were educated by Joshua Frye. After his
(03:17):
primary education, John Bibb studied law under Judge HP. Broadnacks.
But before he could get his law career underway, the
War of eighteen twelve began and the twenty three year
old bib joined the fourth Kentucky Volunteer Brigade. He began
as a private and was promoted to the rank of
major after the Battle of Thames in October of eighteen thirteen.
(03:38):
Although the war continued into eighteen fifteen. John Bibb was
discharged just a month after his promotion and returned to Kentucky.
And it's a little unclear, at least in the documents
that I had available to me, why he was discharged
so soon after being made major. It very well might
have been a health issue, though this is supported by
the fact that although he passed the bar right after
(03:59):
returning to Kentucky and opened his practice, he closed it
down just a couple years later in eighteen sixteen, due
to poor health. In eighteen twenty seven, bib ran for
a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives as a
Whig and one. He was re elected in eighteen twenty
eight and then ran for the Kentucky Senate one again.
(04:20):
He served in the state Senate for four years, from
eighteen thirty to eighteen thirty four. During that time, he
also married Sarah P. Horseley. Their wedding was on August
twenty fourth of eighteen thirty one. Bib was an amateur horticulturist,
and in eighteen forty five he purchased land to support
his hobby. He built his home, Gray Gables, on a
(04:42):
property in Frankfurt Kentucky on Wapping Street. That's usually touted
as he built it for his wife, and it included
a large greenhouse, and there was a substantial garden, and
today that's known as the Bib Burnley House and it
has a historical marker, and it was there that he
started working with lettuce. Over time, Bib developed something he
(05:02):
called limestone lettuce. It was a lettuce that grew well
in Kentucky's limestone rich soil. It was naturally resistant to
a number of pests, including plant lice. It's also really tender,
and it grows in a pretty compact head. And Bib
was not cultivating this crop for profit. He gave most
of it away and it actually was not renamed Bib
(05:24):
Lettuce and commercially sold until decades after his death, which
happened in eighteen eighty four. He had during his late
lifetime given away both lettuce and seeds. That was in
the latter half of the nineteenth century, and subsequently area
farmers had started growing limestone lettuce for themselves. In nineteen nineteen,
the green Wine Greenhouse of Louisville was the first to
(05:46):
sell the lettuce with the name Bib attached to it.
So that's the pretty benign story of where bib Lettuce
came from. Now we have to take a look at
the deeper legacy of slavery within the bib family and
John B. Bibb's role within that. To do that, we
have to go back to his father, Richard Bibb. So
(06:07):
there's a historical marker outside of Major Richard Bibbs townhouse
in Russellville, Kentucky. It was placed there by the Kentucky
Historical Society in nineteen seventy five, and that marker reads
quote bib a Revolutionary War soldier, was born in Virginia
seventeen fifty two. He came to Lexington, Kentucky in seventeen
ninety eight, moved to Logan County the next year, where
(06:29):
he built Bibb's Chapel. Later erected this house for his wife.
Major bib freed twenty nine of his slaves in eighteen
twenty nine and sent them to Liberia. He died in
eighteen thirty nine, and his will provided for the release
of his other slaves and gave them land. Here's the
more detailed story. Richard was born in Goochland County, Virginia,
(06:51):
on April thirteenth, seventeen fifty two. His parents were John
Bib and Susannah Bigger Bib, and during the Revolutionary War,
Richard joined the Continental Army and rose to the rank
of major. When Richard moved his family to Kentucky, he
brought with them a large number of enslaved people. He
had actually been the second largest slaveholder in Prince Edward County, Virginia.
(07:15):
In eighteen seventeen, the American Colonization Society was formed in
the US. Its goal was to provide an alternative to
emancipation within the US for black enslaved people when the
option of being shipped to Africa. This has come up
in several previous episodes, most recently in our episode on
(07:35):
Paul Cuffey. There were supporters of this idea who believed
that it would truly be a viable option for free
black people. There were also people who just saw this
as a solution from a racist standpoint, it would get
those free black people out of the United States. Both
abolitionists and pro slavery white people used similar rhetoric about
(07:57):
free black people never truly a similating into white society.
So for the pro slavery crowd, this was seen as
a condition of emancipation. The emancipated person would then leave
the country, did not matter if they had been born
and raised in the United States and had no real
ties to Africa at this point, and Major Richard Bibb
(08:18):
so again. Lettuce John Bibb's father, had at some point
in his later life, realized that the institution of slavery
was wrong. This was a position that is usually attributed
to his religious studies and becoming a minister. There are
some versions of his life story that indicate that one
of the people that he enslaved had been the one
(08:39):
to encourage him to become a Methodist minister, after he
had initially been on a path to be an Episcopalian minister,
and he had connections to the American Colonization Society. He
was friends with Henry Clay, who was one of the
society's founders. Richard eventually decided that the plan to relocate
emancipated black peace people to Africa was a good idea,
(09:02):
so in eighteen twenty nine, he announced that he was
emancipating one third of his enslaved workforce on the condition
that they would be sent to Liberia. There is a
little bit of fractured logic about why only one third
were going to be manumitted, and it's sometimes cited as
Major Bib's reasoning here. He had just short of one
(09:22):
hundred enslaved people working for him in eighteen twenty nine.
Some of those were entire families self contained within the
bib Families' holdings, but many were married to enslaved people
who were owned by other families. So, according to this logic,
he selected thirty one that no other white family could
claim ownership over, believing that that would be better than
(09:44):
breaking up families. Yes, there is some logic to that,
but it also conveniently ignores the fact that Major Bibb
almost certainly possessed the wealth to purchase and manument any
number of enslaved people had he wanted to keep families together.
The one exception to this whole scenario was a man
named Richard Morton. He had been owned by Bibbs's son
(10:05):
in law, doctor Bonarogos Roberts, and he was married to
a woman named Hannah, who was part of Major Bibb's
enslaved workforce. According to a number of accounts, the enslaved
people that Bibbs selected were ones who also wanted to
go to Liberia rather than remain enslaved, although there is
no way to verify that, and sometimes it reads very
(10:25):
conveniently in retellings of this story. We're going to talk
about the only account of Bibb's emancipation of an announcement
by a person who was there in just a moment first, though,
will pause for a quick sponsor break. So there is
(10:48):
an account of that announcement that this group of enslaved
people would be emancipated, and it is the only first
hand account that we have. It is not without problems,
and we'll talk about that in a moment. This account
was given by a formerly enslaved man named Andrew Bibb,
who related to a reporter in late eighteen ninety seven.
(11:09):
Andrew would have been seventy three at the time, and
he would have been five in eighteen twenty nine when
the events that he recounted took place. And we're going
to read this account, but before we do, please know
that it is really very romanticized. It puts Major bib
in a very very kind light. So this account reads,
in part quote, in the center of the yard stood
(11:31):
an old gentleman with uplifted hands, and beside him was
a barrel on ends, on top of which was placed
a Bible and a hymn book. In front and around
him were nearly one hundred slaves. Twenty nine of these
were about to start as free men and women in
the land of their fathers in far off Africa, after
several generations of servitude in America. The old man asked
(11:55):
a divine blessing upon them. Since his youth he had
cared for them, and before that they or their parents
had belonged to his father. He believed slavery was wrong,
and was taking the initial step toward putting into execution
a long cherished plan. He was about to send one
third of his slaves to Liberia, the others he intended
(12:16):
to liberate at his death. He had read a chapter
in the Bible and had given out a hymn, And
when his prayer was finished, many a blackface was bathed
in tears, and the slaves gathered about and shook old
Master's hand for the last time and heard the accent
of his kindly voice. This goes on to say that
the people chosen for the journey were quote shiftless and refractory,
(12:38):
obstinately resistant to authority or control, unruly. So that last quote,
of course, contradicts the framing that bib was selecting the
people who wanted to go to Africa. So Andrew Bibb's
story was published in the Courier Journal of Louisville, Kentucky.
It was written by a reporter named M. B. Morton.
Sometimes this story, as it's relayed, is told as though
(13:02):
it's a direct quote from Andrew. I don't think that
was ever the intention. It's a direct quote of mb
Morton about the story as told to him, And we
don't know if the account was edited or altered, although
it certainly seems likely. I don't know anybody who speaks
in such prosy, you know what I mean. I mean nobody.
(13:24):
Mb Morton, we should say, kind of made a career
out of talking about slave narratives. He went on to
write extensively about Kentucky's enslaved population, including in a book
he wrote called Kentuckians Are Different that didn't come out
until nineteen thirty eight, so almost forty years later. That's
also a book that he dedicated to the state's enslaved population.
As his educators so there's a lot to unpack there.
(13:47):
I just want to acknowledge sort of what was going
on with it. We do know that it took several
years for the plan to move all of those people
to actually be executed. They were taken to Clarksville, Zuri
by wagon, then boarded a steamship for New Orleans. In
New Orleans, they were taken aboard a brig called the
Ajax on April twentieth, eighteen thirty three. The oldest member
(14:12):
of the group bibsent was a man in his thirties
named Andrew, and the youngest was just a little over
six months old. All of them, according to research done
by Michael Morrow, museum director for the Sikh Museum that
now exists on Bibb's former property, all the people Bib
emancipated for this journey were the direct descendants of enslaved
(14:32):
people known by the names Lucy and Keziah. That couple
had been enslaved by the Bib family going all the
way back to Virginia. We also don't know exactly why
it took two and a half years to get them
onto this ship after the announcement. That's all a little
unclear in these retellings, and there doesn't seem to be
(14:53):
like a journal or anything kept by any of the
wagon drive anybody that explains why that took two and
a half years. Even then, that seems like an extraordinarily
long time. The voyage of the Ajax was paid for
with funding from the American Colonization Society and the Kentucky
Colonization Society. And in addition to Lucy and Keziah's family
(15:15):
from the Bib properties, there were one hundred eighteen other
enslaved people being emancipated through this journey. They were mostly
from Kentucky. There was also a white missionary and an
agent of the Tennessee Colonization Society named H. D. King.
This journey was really rough. There was a cholera outbreak
on the ship which killed several dozen people. Those numbers
(15:37):
are usually quoted as between thirty and forty, but it's
not one hundred percent clear. A Black minister named Abel
Long visited Liberia years later, and he reported that he
was unable to make contact with any of the people
from the Bib group, although he was told that two
of the women had survived and had gone into the
jungle to live. That account is very strange. I read
(15:59):
it in one newspaper, and it's also very sensationalized. There's
language I did not care to include here. The rest
of the people who went appeared to have died when
Major Bibb died, as was indicated on that historical marker
we mentioned earlier. He did as promised, emancipate his remaining
enslaved workforce. He once again indicated a desire for some
(16:22):
of them to go to Liberia, and he also offered
an alternate plan. Here's the pertinent passage from his will. Quote.
I do hereby emancipate all of my slaves from and
after the first day of January next after my death,
and desire that all of them who have not wives
or husbands in bondage, be sent to Liberia. I give
(16:44):
to my slaves hereby emancipated five thousand dollars, to be
divided out among them, and paid out to them from
time to time according to the discretion of my executors.
And all of my stock of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs,
farming tools, wagons and carts, and crops made the year
of my decease, or that may be on hand. And
(17:07):
each slave hired out to the hire do for the
year in which I shall decease. I also give to
said slaves all my lands which are unsold or undisposed
of in the County of Grayson of this state. The
land in the County of Logan conveyed to me by
Benjamin Tompkins, Ralph E. Nourse, and Robert Norse is to
(17:27):
be divided among them at the discretion of my executors.
And also the land in Logan conveyed to me by
Mark Harden, and about thirty acres adjoining it, conveyances to
be made by my executors or either of them, And
they are hereby authorized to sell and convey any of
the land or either property hereby given to my emancipated slaves,
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and divide or lay out the money for their benefit.
I give to my Errand the house and lots on
which he lives in Russellville, and his carpenter tools, as
his portion of the legacies left my emancipated slaves. I
give to my woman Clarissa's is that part of most
remote from the dwelling house, to include the smith's shop.
(18:13):
Major bib then included a long list of names of
the emancipated enslaved. They are listed only by first name.
This part of the will then concludes with quote, I
give to my slaves by this will emancipated my two
lots under the Knob near M. B. Morton's and two
fractional lots in Saunders, addition to Russellville near James Bell's stable,
(18:35):
and a fractional lot near William Duncan's and William First's
near the Public Square, to be divided and conveyed to
them at the discretion of my executors. When Major bib died,
his son John wrote two letters to his older brother,
George M. Bibb, who had been a US Senator and
was serving as a judge of the Jefferson County Court
(18:56):
of Chancery when their father died. The first letter informed
George of the Major's passing, and then the second asked
for George's thoughts on the will because George's expertise and
wills and trusts was just unmatched. George's response was twelve
pages long, and he did not agree with his father's wishes,
(19:17):
but he also knew he couldn't really contest the will.
Although the advice that he gives to his brother is
not in the interest of the people that Major Bib
named for emancipation. We're not going to read this whole
thing again. It is twelve pages long. That would be
the whole podcast. Really. We'll read some excerpts of it, though,
(19:37):
to show how George Bib made the case to his
brother that he could hang on to assets that were
mentioned in the will for as long as possible. Yeah, this,
I have feelings about this letter. George's letter opens with
some niceties towards John discusses that their father has died,
and early on it includes this passage quote, what a
(20:00):
in fact the experiment our father has made in sending
negroes to Liberia, and in setting out some to work
for themselves near him, might have had in changing his
mind upon the subject of emancipation. I did not know.
The will which he has left shows that his mind
was unaltered. It is done poor, as I am struggling
at my time of life, by the most intense application
(20:22):
to the duties, which does not afford any surplus at
the year's end above the expenses of my family. Yet
I would not for the property bequeathed by the will
for all the Negroes nor the value ten times told,
insult the memory of our father by and attempt to
set aside the writing he has published as his last
will and testament. Whoever suggested an intention on my part
(20:47):
to oppose the will or to endeavor to break it,
did but little understand my thoughts or temper, spoke at
random without color of authority from me, and did me
great injustice. At this point in his life, George had
enjoyed a lot of success, but he had, for reasons
that are kind of nebulous, gotten to the point where
his finances were pretty lean by the time his father died.
(21:11):
The only reasons he cites when discussing his financial problems
were the banking system and quote my own confiding temper.
So while you might understand his dismay and his father
giving so much land and money towards his emancipation provisions,
and why people expected that he would try to contest
the will, It's also reported that Major Bib left his
(21:34):
children well cared for financially. It was even mentioned in
his death announcement. Yeah, I'm always suspicious of anyone who's
like even though I am in the worst position, I
would never try to do anything like when that's you're open,
I'm going to lean back. Aside from insisting that he
would never insult his father's memory, George makes his opinions
(21:57):
pretty clearly known in this letter about how he believed
the will should be executed, And we are going to
dig into all of that after we first take a
little break and hear from the sponsors that keep stuff
you missed in history class going. George Bibb makes clear
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in his letter that he believed his father was wrong
in emancipating slaves. He did not side with abolitionists. This
writing is for me infuriating to read, and it includes
the following quote, The emancipation of a large number of negroes,
male and female, helpless and infirm, old and young, would
provide a nuisance to society as well as an injury
(22:42):
to the Negroes. And he hints that the key to
managing the situation in the way he thinks would avoid
problems is in the executor's hands, although he also adds
quote the extent of discretionary powers given to his executors
is not clear of difficulty. So remember, George Bibb was
an expert in wills. He had practiced law was able
(23:06):
to build a case, and as he continues with this,
it definitely seems like he's trying to show his brother
John that there is just so much gray area in
the will when it comes to the specifics of the apportionment.
So he continues quote to apply these rules to the will.
I give to my slaves hereby emancipated five thousand dollars
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to be divided out amongst them, and paid out to
them from time to time according to the discretion of
my executors. The extent of the discretion which the executors
are to exercise under the clause respects first the division
amongst these collegiatearies, second the time of the payments. The
important question is may the executors divide the money in
(23:50):
unequal shares? If the shares are to be equal, share
and share alike to each legatary. If the executors cannot
exercise a discretion by giving five shillings to one and
eighty dollars to another from time to time, graduated by
the incapacities, families and infirmities which enter into the question
(24:11):
of the respective abilities or inabilities to labor for self support,
there the sentence would be no more operative by the
presence of those words divided out amongst them, than if
those were expunged and the Testament left with the words
to be paid to them from time to time according
to the discretion of my executors. By denying a discretionary
(24:34):
power to the executors to make the division amongst the
collegiatearias and unequal portions, the one member of the sentence
would be made expletive with no effect whatever, contrary to
the rule that every word shall have effect if consistent
with the other parts of the Testament. After this, George
invoked a seventeen ninety four law that Kentucky had passed
(24:57):
regarding provisions for emancipating enslaved people. That law stipulated that
anyone trying to manument an enslaved person had to quote
writing under his or her hand and seal a test
had improved in the county court by two witnesses, That
paperwork had to be filed with the court, and the quote.
Court shall have full power to demand bond and sufficient
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security of the emancipator, his or her executors or administrators,
as the case may be, for the maintenance of any
slave or slaves that may be aged or infirm, either
of body or mind, to prevent their becoming chargeable to
the county. So, in short, if someone wanted to manument
a person, they had to promise and make provisions to
(25:40):
ensure that the manumented person would not become a burden
on the state. George wrote of the law and reminded
his brother John that this responsibility fell to him as executor,
and that it cost money just to file the paperwork.
He noted that for every certificate of emancipation, the law
authorizes the clerk to charge a fee of five shillings.
(26:02):
Then he reminds his brother that there are fifty four
people named in the will for emancipation. Yeah, you can
see him building his case of like this is a
huge burden on you. We got to protect you. And
he follows up by trying to show John that maybe
their father really didn't think the money part through in
other ways writing quote. But then again in another part
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of the Testament, to each slave hired out, the higher
due for such slave for the year ensuing the death
of the testator is specifically devised to that slave, which
shows the equality of legacies to each slave emancipated was
not in the mind or will of the testator, but
that emancipation was the general object of the will, and
(26:44):
not the fund of money. As well as the lands
placed at the discretion of his executors, was not for
the purpose of a quality of legacies to each slave,
but an absolute and unconfined discretion to be exercised by
his executors for support of the many, according to circumstances,
such as he himself would have exercised if he in
(27:07):
this lifetime would have emancipated them and come under the
positive engagement to the courts to keep them from becoming
a charge to the county. Next, George bib warns John
that being the executor of their father's fortune is going
to bring out the worst in people, adding quote, you
and your brother Richard are to have some trouble in
(27:28):
the execution of the trust, in all probability by reason
of the interference of low minded ignorance and interested knavery
by persons who will stimulate the negroes and speculate upon
their interests and poverty. If you do not have so
such you are fortunate above the condition of society here
(27:49):
in Louisville. Then he talks about how the funds have
to be carefully managed in a way then ensures that
all the desires of the testator have been met as
the executor sees best, and that if all the assets
are distributed, then the executor is left on the hook
for any additional funds that are needed because of any
emancipated people aging or no longer being able to work,
(28:12):
because that's an injustice. He literally uses that word. This
all sums up to a man urging his brother to
not distribute everything, but instead to hold the funds in
reserve to manage and dole out over time. The implication
here is that the emancipated people wouldn't handle the money
they were given properly, and then the bib family would
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be on the hook to make good financially with the
county and state. He spells this out pretty clearly in
this passage quote. The time of payment and applications of
the sum of five thousand dollars specifically denoted being left
by the will uncertain to be judged by the executors.
According to the circumstances, The executors cannot be chargeable for
(28:53):
interest unless for manifest delay and abuse. Contrary to the
trust if the executors exercise the power of selling the lands,
such funds so raised as shall not be divided or
intended to be divided in their discretion presently after received,
ought to be put out to interest until such divisions
(29:13):
shall become proper. We're going over this document and quoting
it so closely because it's an important example of how
anti abolitionists could make a case that it was in
everyone's best interests not to give enslaved black people full
emancipation or assets, even when it was somebody's will that
(29:34):
they do so. It's also important because it informed decisions
that shapes an entire community and in ways that are
still felt today. John B. Bib did take in this
letter and he did start manumitting his father's enslaved workforce
in waves, starting in February of eighteen forty. It was
about a month after that emancipation was supposed to start
(29:57):
according to the will. The first group was ten. They
went as a group to the Logan County Courthouse for
their freedom papers and they did get them, and these
were followed by additional groups. None of the emancipated people
chose to go to Liberia. Many of them moved to
the land that had been set aside for them in
Major Bib's will. It's an area that became known as Bibtown.
(30:17):
That's actually two communities, Upper Bibtown and Lower Bibtown. But
even so, the actual deeds to those lands were not
fully granted until the late eighteen seventies, so nearly forty
years after Major Bib had died. Presumably some of those
people that had been emancipated had died. In that interim
forty years other people left the area and moved to
(30:40):
larger cities like Louisville or out of the state entirely.
And it's important to remember that even once those who
stayed had been emancipated and were living on land that
had been set aside by Major Bib, even if they
didn't own that land outright, these were still free black
people living in a slave state. For the Civil War,
(31:01):
it was not safe for them. There was always a
risk of being re enslaved or being targeted with violence.
And we have to go back to the lettuce because
in having been left very comfortable when his father passed,
John b. Bib was able to have leisure time with
which to cultivate his plants. And develop that limestone lettuce
(31:23):
listen no shade to Bib Lettuce I like it, but
that inheritance that afforded all of that was possible due
to the work of the hundreds of enslaved people his
father had owned over the years and who had worked
on his land, enabling him to amass a huge amount
of wealth. Major Bib is often cited as one of
the richest men in Kentucky. Today. Major Bib's home is
(31:45):
a museum, the Sikh Museum, which stands for Struggles for
emancipation and Equality in Kentucky. It's actually spread out among
six buildings on two sites. The buildings have been restored
in The museum's mission is to tell the stories of
the enslaved people emancipated by Major Richard bibb. In twenty nineteen,
there was a reunion at that museum and anyone who
(32:08):
was related to Bib, both black and white, was invited
to attend. And that's because it is highly likely and
widely believed that some of the enslaved children on the
Bib property prior to Major Bib's death had absolutely been
fathered by him. There are quite a few articles written
about that reunion a lot of them are very feel good,
but I would recommend one by journalist Linney O'Neil, which
(32:30):
was written for the Site and Scape, and it's titled
The Bitter Harvest of Richard Bibb, a descendant of slavery
confronts her inheritance. It is a very frank piece of
writing about the pain of such scenarios, things like this
big feel good reunion for some of the black attendees.
There's another reunion planned this ball. It's twenty twenty two.
(32:50):
This is in September for Bibb's descendants, and there'll be
a new documentary debut at that one titled Invented Before
You Were Born, which examines the issues of the Bibs
story and its legacy. And you can get more information
about that at seek museum dot org. That's see k
Museum dot org. Yeah, man, not about Lettuce, sort of
(33:14):
about Lettus. I just it's one of those things where
you realize, like, oh, this cute story about food is
really about the people that made it possible for a
white guy to have leisure time to make that food.
Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If
you'd like to send us a note our email addresses,
(33:34):
History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe
to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hello, and Happy Saturday. So the Bib family has popped
up a couple of times in recent episodes, and we
actually talked about this family and its legacy in our
episode where we also covered the development of the variety
of lettuce named after them, the Bib Lettuce. That episode
ran on July fifth, twenty twenty two. During that episode,
(00:23):
we referenced the work of Lenay O'Neill, and she recently
published a book about the story and her connection to it,
titled Bib Country Unearthing My Family, Secrets of Land, Legacy
and Lettuce. That book is out now and it is
in my audiobook Q. I am very much looking forward
to reading it. And we are rerunning that twenty twenty
(00:44):
two episode on The Bib Family today. Enjoy Welcome to
Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm
Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy. This episode was supposed to be
(01:10):
another installment of eponymous food. Yeah, it went a different
way though it is not. It is little, but as
I got into the story of one of those foods,
it really unfurled quite quickly into a much bigger and
much more important story about the family of a man
who cultivated lettuce in his later life just as it
hits up. I promise there's another eponymous food coming at
(01:32):
some point, but it's not today. This story is I think,
really important because it offers a snapshot of a very
rich person's choice to emancipate his enslaved workforce, the way
his family received that information, and how their legacy, both
good and bad, is all tied to having enslaved people
(01:53):
building their familial wealth. Heads up, We're going to read
a lot from writings that were composed in the eighteen hundreds,
so of course some of the language there is a
bit outdated. Uh. But first we are going to talk
about bib lettuce and the man who cultivated it. Yes,
I love it when episodes go in totally different directions
(02:14):
from what they were playing, just a hard left. So
John Bigger bib who was born on October twenty seventh,
seventeen eighty nine, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. His parents,
Richard Bibb and Lucy Booker bib moved from Virginia to
Kentucky when John was about nine years old. We're going
(02:35):
to get back to Richard in a moment and talk
about him a lot more. They shifted around Kentucky for
a bit. First they lived in Fayette County and then
in Bullet, where Richard Bibb purchased assault works. Then they
went to Logan County and established a large and successful farm.
Bib's early education was largely under Joshua fry That was
(02:56):
a fellow Virginia who had moved to Mercer County, Kentucky.
Fry is a pretty interesting figure in Kentucky history because
when he moved there, he didn't think there was an
adequate educational system, so he opened up a school out
of his house, and then a lot of prominent people
in Kentucky's history were educated by Joshua Frye. After his
(03:17):
primary education, John Bibb studied law under Judge HP. Broadnacks.
But before he could get his law career underway, the
War of eighteen twelve began and the twenty three year
old bib joined the fourth Kentucky Volunteer Brigade. He began
as a private and was promoted to the rank of
major after the Battle of Thames in October of eighteen thirteen.
(03:38):
Although the war continued into eighteen fifteen. John Bibb was
discharged just a month after his promotion and returned to Kentucky.
And it's a little unclear, at least in the documents
that I had available to me, why he was discharged
so soon after being made major. It very well might
have been a health issue, though this is supported by
the fact that although he passed the bar right after
(03:59):
returning to Kentucky and opened his practice, he closed it
down just a couple years later in eighteen sixteen, due
to poor health. In eighteen twenty seven, bib ran for
a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives as a
Whig and one. He was re elected in eighteen twenty
eight and then ran for the Kentucky Senate one again.
(04:20):
He served in the state Senate for four years, from
eighteen thirty to eighteen thirty four. During that time, he
also married Sarah P. Horseley. Their wedding was on August
twenty fourth of eighteen thirty one. Bib was an amateur horticulturist,
and in eighteen forty five he purchased land to support
his hobby. He built his home, Gray Gables, on a
(04:42):
property in Frankfurt Kentucky on Wapping Street. That's usually touted
as he built it for his wife, and it included
a large greenhouse, and there was a substantial garden, and
today that's known as the Bib Burnley House and it
has a historical marker, and it was there that he
started working with lettuce. Over time, Bib developed something he
(05:02):
called limestone lettuce. It was a lettuce that grew well
in Kentucky's limestone rich soil. It was naturally resistant to
a number of pests, including plant lice. It's also really tender,
and it grows in a pretty compact head. And Bib
was not cultivating this crop for profit. He gave most
of it away and it actually was not renamed Bib
(05:24):
Lettuce and commercially sold until decades after his death, which
happened in eighteen eighty four. He had during his late
lifetime given away both lettuce and seeds. That was in
the latter half of the nineteenth century, and subsequently area
farmers had started growing limestone lettuce for themselves. In nineteen nineteen,
the green Wine Greenhouse of Louisville was the first to
(05:46):
sell the lettuce with the name Bib attached to it.
So that's the pretty benign story of where bib Lettuce
came from. Now we have to take a look at
the deeper legacy of slavery within the bib family and
John B. Bibb's role within that. To do that, we
have to go back to his father, Richard Bibb. So
(06:07):
there's a historical marker outside of Major Richard Bibbs townhouse
in Russellville, Kentucky. It was placed there by the Kentucky
Historical Society in nineteen seventy five, and that marker reads
quote bib a Revolutionary War soldier, was born in Virginia
seventeen fifty two. He came to Lexington, Kentucky in seventeen
ninety eight, moved to Logan County the next year, where
(06:29):
he built Bibb's Chapel. Later erected this house for his wife.
Major bib freed twenty nine of his slaves in eighteen
twenty nine and sent them to Liberia. He died in
eighteen thirty nine, and his will provided for the release
of his other slaves and gave them land. Here's the
more detailed story. Richard was born in Goochland County, Virginia,
(06:51):
on April thirteenth, seventeen fifty two. His parents were John
Bib and Susannah Bigger Bib, and during the Revolutionary War,
Richard joined the Continental Army and rose to the rank
of major. When Richard moved his family to Kentucky, he
brought with them a large number of enslaved people. He
had actually been the second largest slaveholder in Prince Edward County, Virginia.
(07:15):
In eighteen seventeen, the American Colonization Society was formed in
the US. Its goal was to provide an alternative to
emancipation within the US for black enslaved people when the
option of being shipped to Africa. This has come up
in several previous episodes, most recently in our episode on
(07:35):
Paul Cuffey. There were supporters of this idea who believed
that it would truly be a viable option for free
black people. There were also people who just saw this
as a solution from a racist standpoint, it would get
those free black people out of the United States. Both
abolitionists and pro slavery white people used similar rhetoric about
(07:57):
free black people never truly a similating into white society.
So for the pro slavery crowd, this was seen as
a condition of emancipation. The emancipated person would then leave
the country, did not matter if they had been born
and raised in the United States and had no real
ties to Africa at this point, and Major Richard Bibb
(08:18):
so again. Lettuce John Bibb's father, had at some point
in his later life, realized that the institution of slavery
was wrong. This was a position that is usually attributed
to his religious studies and becoming a minister. There are
some versions of his life story that indicate that one
of the people that he enslaved had been the one
(08:39):
to encourage him to become a Methodist minister, after he
had initially been on a path to be an Episcopalian minister,
and he had connections to the American Colonization Society. He
was friends with Henry Clay, who was one of the
society's founders. Richard eventually decided that the plan to relocate
emancipated black peace people to Africa was a good idea,
(09:02):
so in eighteen twenty nine, he announced that he was
emancipating one third of his enslaved workforce on the condition
that they would be sent to Liberia. There is a
little bit of fractured logic about why only one third
were going to be manumitted, and it's sometimes cited as
Major Bib's reasoning here. He had just short of one
(09:22):
hundred enslaved people working for him in eighteen twenty nine.
Some of those were entire families self contained within the
bib Families' holdings, but many were married to enslaved people
who were owned by other families. So, according to this logic,
he selected thirty one that no other white family could
claim ownership over, believing that that would be better than
(09:44):
breaking up families. Yes, there is some logic to that,
but it also conveniently ignores the fact that Major Bibb
almost certainly possessed the wealth to purchase and manument any
number of enslaved people had he wanted to keep families together.
The one exception to this whole scenario was a man
named Richard Morton. He had been owned by Bibbs's son
(10:05):
in law, doctor Bonarogos Roberts, and he was married to
a woman named Hannah, who was part of Major Bibb's
enslaved workforce. According to a number of accounts, the enslaved
people that Bibbs selected were ones who also wanted to
go to Liberia rather than remain enslaved, although there is
no way to verify that, and sometimes it reads very
(10:25):
conveniently in retellings of this story. We're going to talk
about the only account of Bibb's emancipation of an announcement
by a person who was there in just a moment first, though,
will pause for a quick sponsor break. So there is
(10:48):
an account of that announcement that this group of enslaved
people would be emancipated, and it is the only first
hand account that we have. It is not without problems,
and we'll talk about that in a moment. This account
was given by a formerly enslaved man named Andrew Bibb,
who related to a reporter in late eighteen ninety seven.
(11:09):
Andrew would have been seventy three at the time, and
he would have been five in eighteen twenty nine when
the events that he recounted took place. And we're going
to read this account, but before we do, please know
that it is really very romanticized. It puts Major bib
in a very very kind light. So this account reads,
in part quote, in the center of the yard stood
(11:31):
an old gentleman with uplifted hands, and beside him was
a barrel on ends, on top of which was placed
a Bible and a hymn book. In front and around
him were nearly one hundred slaves. Twenty nine of these
were about to start as free men and women in
the land of their fathers in far off Africa, after
several generations of servitude in America. The old man asked
(11:55):
a divine blessing upon them. Since his youth he had
cared for them, and before that they or their parents
had belonged to his father. He believed slavery was wrong,
and was taking the initial step toward putting into execution
a long cherished plan. He was about to send one
third of his slaves to Liberia, the others he intended
(12:16):
to liberate at his death. He had read a chapter
in the Bible and had given out a hymn, And
when his prayer was finished, many a blackface was bathed
in tears, and the slaves gathered about and shook old
Master's hand for the last time and heard the accent
of his kindly voice. This goes on to say that
the people chosen for the journey were quote shiftless and refractory,
(12:38):
obstinately resistant to authority or control, unruly. So that last quote,
of course, contradicts the framing that bib was selecting the
people who wanted to go to Africa. So Andrew Bibb's
story was published in the Courier Journal of Louisville, Kentucky.
It was written by a reporter named M. B. Morton.
Sometimes this story, as it's relayed, is told as though
(13:02):
it's a direct quote from Andrew. I don't think that
was ever the intention. It's a direct quote of mb
Morton about the story as told to him, And we
don't know if the account was edited or altered, although
it certainly seems likely. I don't know anybody who speaks
in such prosy, you know what I mean. I mean nobody.
(13:24):
Mb Morton, we should say, kind of made a career
out of talking about slave narratives. He went on to
write extensively about Kentucky's enslaved population, including in a book
he wrote called Kentuckians Are Different that didn't come out
until nineteen thirty eight, so almost forty years later. That's
also a book that he dedicated to the state's enslaved population.
As his educators so there's a lot to unpack there.
(13:47):
I just want to acknowledge sort of what was going
on with it. We do know that it took several
years for the plan to move all of those people
to actually be executed. They were taken to Clarksville, Zuri
by wagon, then boarded a steamship for New Orleans. In
New Orleans, they were taken aboard a brig called the
Ajax on April twentieth, eighteen thirty three. The oldest member
(14:12):
of the group bibsent was a man in his thirties
named Andrew, and the youngest was just a little over
six months old. All of them, according to research done
by Michael Morrow, museum director for the Sikh Museum that
now exists on Bibb's former property, all the people Bib
emancipated for this journey were the direct descendants of enslaved
(14:32):
people known by the names Lucy and Keziah. That couple
had been enslaved by the Bib family going all the
way back to Virginia. We also don't know exactly why
it took two and a half years to get them
onto this ship after the announcement. That's all a little
unclear in these retellings, and there doesn't seem to be
(14:53):
like a journal or anything kept by any of the
wagon drive anybody that explains why that took two and
a half years. Even then, that seems like an extraordinarily
long time. The voyage of the Ajax was paid for
with funding from the American Colonization Society and the Kentucky
Colonization Society. And in addition to Lucy and Keziah's family
(15:15):
from the Bib properties, there were one hundred eighteen other
enslaved people being emancipated through this journey. They were mostly
from Kentucky. There was also a white missionary and an
agent of the Tennessee Colonization Society named H. D. King.
This journey was really rough. There was a cholera outbreak
on the ship which killed several dozen people. Those numbers
(15:37):
are usually quoted as between thirty and forty, but it's
not one hundred percent clear. A Black minister named Abel
Long visited Liberia years later, and he reported that he
was unable to make contact with any of the people
from the Bib group, although he was told that two
of the women had survived and had gone into the
jungle to live. That account is very strange. I read
(15:59):
it in one newspaper, and it's also very sensationalized. There's
language I did not care to include here. The rest
of the people who went appeared to have died when
Major Bibb died, as was indicated on that historical marker
we mentioned earlier. He did as promised, emancipate his remaining
enslaved workforce. He once again indicated a desire for some
(16:22):
of them to go to Liberia, and he also offered
an alternate plan. Here's the pertinent passage from his will. Quote.
I do hereby emancipate all of my slaves from and
after the first day of January next after my death,
and desire that all of them who have not wives
or husbands in bondage, be sent to Liberia. I give
(16:44):
to my slaves hereby emancipated five thousand dollars, to be
divided out among them, and paid out to them from
time to time according to the discretion of my executors.
And all of my stock of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs,
farming tools, wagons and carts, and crops made the year
of my decease, or that may be on hand. And
(17:07):
each slave hired out to the hire do for the
year in which I shall decease. I also give to
said slaves all my lands which are unsold or undisposed
of in the County of Grayson of this state. The
land in the County of Logan conveyed to me by
Benjamin Tompkins, Ralph E. Nourse, and Robert Norse is to
(17:27):
be divided among them at the discretion of my executors.
And also the land in Logan conveyed to me by
Mark Harden, and about thirty acres adjoining it, conveyances to
be made by my executors or either of them, And
they are hereby authorized to sell and convey any of
the land or either property hereby given to my emancipated slaves,
(17:51):
and divide or lay out the money for their benefit.
I give to my Errand the house and lots on
which he lives in Russellville, and his carpenter tools, as
his portion of the legacies left my emancipated slaves. I
give to my woman Clarissa's is that part of most
remote from the dwelling house, to include the smith's shop.
(18:13):
Major bib then included a long list of names of
the emancipated enslaved. They are listed only by first name.
This part of the will then concludes with quote, I
give to my slaves by this will emancipated my two
lots under the Knob near M. B. Morton's and two
fractional lots in Saunders, addition to Russellville near James Bell's stable,
(18:35):
and a fractional lot near William Duncan's and William First's
near the Public Square, to be divided and conveyed to
them at the discretion of my executors. When Major bib died,
his son John wrote two letters to his older brother,
George M. Bibb, who had been a US Senator and
was serving as a judge of the Jefferson County Court
(18:56):
of Chancery when their father died. The first letter informed
George of the Major's passing, and then the second asked
for George's thoughts on the will because George's expertise and
wills and trusts was just unmatched. George's response was twelve
pages long, and he did not agree with his father's wishes,
(19:17):
but he also knew he couldn't really contest the will.
Although the advice that he gives to his brother is
not in the interest of the people that Major Bib
named for emancipation. We're not going to read this whole
thing again. It is twelve pages long. That would be
the whole podcast. Really. We'll read some excerpts of it, though,
(19:37):
to show how George Bib made the case to his
brother that he could hang on to assets that were
mentioned in the will for as long as possible. Yeah, this,
I have feelings about this letter. George's letter opens with
some niceties towards John discusses that their father has died,
and early on it includes this passage quote, what a
(20:00):
in fact the experiment our father has made in sending
negroes to Liberia, and in setting out some to work
for themselves near him, might have had in changing his
mind upon the subject of emancipation. I did not know.
The will which he has left shows that his mind
was unaltered. It is done poor, as I am struggling
at my time of life, by the most intense application
(20:22):
to the duties, which does not afford any surplus at
the year's end above the expenses of my family. Yet
I would not for the property bequeathed by the will
for all the Negroes nor the value ten times told,
insult the memory of our father by and attempt to
set aside the writing he has published as his last
will and testament. Whoever suggested an intention on my part
(20:47):
to oppose the will or to endeavor to break it,
did but little understand my thoughts or temper, spoke at
random without color of authority from me, and did me
great injustice. At this point in his life, George had
enjoyed a lot of success, but he had, for reasons
that are kind of nebulous, gotten to the point where
his finances were pretty lean by the time his father died.
(21:11):
The only reasons he cites when discussing his financial problems
were the banking system and quote my own confiding temper.
So while you might understand his dismay and his father
giving so much land and money towards his emancipation provisions,
and why people expected that he would try to contest
the will, It's also reported that Major Bib left his
(21:34):
children well cared for financially. It was even mentioned in
his death announcement. Yeah, I'm always suspicious of anyone who's
like even though I am in the worst position, I
would never try to do anything like when that's you're open,
I'm going to lean back. Aside from insisting that he
would never insult his father's memory, George makes his opinions
(21:57):
pretty clearly known in this letter about how he believed
the will should be executed, And we are going to
dig into all of that after we first take a
little break and hear from the sponsors that keep stuff
you missed in history class going. George Bibb makes clear
(22:20):
in his letter that he believed his father was wrong
in emancipating slaves. He did not side with abolitionists. This
writing is for me infuriating to read, and it includes
the following quote, The emancipation of a large number of negroes,
male and female, helpless and infirm, old and young, would
provide a nuisance to society as well as an injury
(22:42):
to the Negroes. And he hints that the key to
managing the situation in the way he thinks would avoid
problems is in the executor's hands, although he also adds
quote the extent of discretionary powers given to his executors
is not clear of difficulty. So remember, George Bibb was
an expert in wills. He had practiced law was able
(23:06):
to build a case, and as he continues with this,
it definitely seems like he's trying to show his brother
John that there is just so much gray area in
the will when it comes to the specifics of the apportionment.
So he continues quote to apply these rules to the will.
I give to my slaves hereby emancipated five thousand dollars
(23:26):
to be divided out amongst them, and paid out to
them from time to time according to the discretion of
my executors. The extent of the discretion which the executors
are to exercise under the clause respects first the division
amongst these collegiatearies, second the time of the payments. The
important question is may the executors divide the money in
(23:50):
unequal shares? If the shares are to be equal, share
and share alike to each legatary. If the executors cannot
exercise a discretion by giving five shillings to one and
eighty dollars to another from time to time, graduated by
the incapacities, families and infirmities which enter into the question
(24:11):
of the respective abilities or inabilities to labor for self support,
there the sentence would be no more operative by the
presence of those words divided out amongst them, than if
those were expunged and the Testament left with the words
to be paid to them from time to time according
to the discretion of my executors. By denying a discretionary
(24:34):
power to the executors to make the division amongst the
collegiatearias and unequal portions, the one member of the sentence
would be made expletive with no effect whatever, contrary to
the rule that every word shall have effect if consistent
with the other parts of the Testament. After this, George
invoked a seventeen ninety four law that Kentucky had passed
(24:57):
regarding provisions for emancipating enslaved people. That law stipulated that
anyone trying to manument an enslaved person had to quote
writing under his or her hand and seal a test
had improved in the county court by two witnesses, That
paperwork had to be filed with the court, and the quote.
Court shall have full power to demand bond and sufficient
(25:19):
security of the emancipator, his or her executors or administrators,
as the case may be, for the maintenance of any
slave or slaves that may be aged or infirm, either
of body or mind, to prevent their becoming chargeable to
the county. So, in short, if someone wanted to manument
a person, they had to promise and make provisions to
(25:40):
ensure that the manumented person would not become a burden
on the state. George wrote of the law and reminded
his brother John that this responsibility fell to him as executor,
and that it cost money just to file the paperwork.
He noted that for every certificate of emancipation, the law
authorizes the clerk to charge a fee of five shillings.
(26:02):
Then he reminds his brother that there are fifty four
people named in the will for emancipation. Yeah, you can
see him building his case of like this is a
huge burden on you. We got to protect you. And
he follows up by trying to show John that maybe
their father really didn't think the money part through in
other ways writing quote. But then again in another part
(26:23):
of the Testament, to each slave hired out, the higher
due for such slave for the year ensuing the death
of the testator is specifically devised to that slave, which
shows the equality of legacies to each slave emancipated was
not in the mind or will of the testator, but
that emancipation was the general object of the will, and
(26:44):
not the fund of money. As well as the lands
placed at the discretion of his executors, was not for
the purpose of a quality of legacies to each slave,
but an absolute and unconfined discretion to be exercised by
his executors for support of the many, according to circumstances,
such as he himself would have exercised if he in
(27:07):
this lifetime would have emancipated them and come under the
positive engagement to the courts to keep them from becoming
a charge to the county. Next, George bib warns John
that being the executor of their father's fortune is going
to bring out the worst in people, adding quote, you
and your brother Richard are to have some trouble in
(27:28):
the execution of the trust, in all probability by reason
of the interference of low minded ignorance and interested knavery
by persons who will stimulate the negroes and speculate upon
their interests and poverty. If you do not have so
such you are fortunate above the condition of society here
(27:49):
in Louisville. Then he talks about how the funds have
to be carefully managed in a way then ensures that
all the desires of the testator have been met as
the executor sees best, and that if all the assets
are distributed, then the executor is left on the hook
for any additional funds that are needed because of any
emancipated people aging or no longer being able to work,
(28:12):
because that's an injustice. He literally uses that word. This
all sums up to a man urging his brother to
not distribute everything, but instead to hold the funds in
reserve to manage and dole out over time. The implication
here is that the emancipated people wouldn't handle the money
they were given properly, and then the bib family would
(28:33):
be on the hook to make good financially with the
county and state. He spells this out pretty clearly in
this passage quote. The time of payment and applications of
the sum of five thousand dollars specifically denoted being left
by the will uncertain to be judged by the executors.
According to the circumstances, The executors cannot be chargeable for
(28:53):
interest unless for manifest delay and abuse. Contrary to the
trust if the executors exercise the power of selling the lands,
such funds so raised as shall not be divided or
intended to be divided in their discretion presently after received,
ought to be put out to interest until such divisions
(29:13):
shall become proper. We're going over this document and quoting
it so closely because it's an important example of how
anti abolitionists could make a case that it was in
everyone's best interests not to give enslaved black people full
emancipation or assets, even when it was somebody's will that
(29:34):
they do so. It's also important because it informed decisions
that shapes an entire community and in ways that are
still felt today. John B. Bib did take in this
letter and he did start manumitting his father's enslaved workforce
in waves, starting in February of eighteen forty. It was
about a month after that emancipation was supposed to start
(29:57):
according to the will. The first group was ten. They
went as a group to the Logan County Courthouse for
their freedom papers and they did get them, and these
were followed by additional groups. None of the emancipated people
chose to go to Liberia. Many of them moved to
the land that had been set aside for them in
Major Bib's will. It's an area that became known as Bibtown.
(30:17):
That's actually two communities, Upper Bibtown and Lower Bibtown. But
even so, the actual deeds to those lands were not
fully granted until the late eighteen seventies, so nearly forty
years after Major Bib had died. Presumably some of those
people that had been emancipated had died. In that interim
forty years other people left the area and moved to
(30:40):
larger cities like Louisville or out of the state entirely.
And it's important to remember that even once those who
stayed had been emancipated and were living on land that
had been set aside by Major Bib, even if they
didn't own that land outright, these were still free black
people living in a slave state. For the Civil War,
(31:01):
it was not safe for them. There was always a
risk of being re enslaved or being targeted with violence.
And we have to go back to the lettuce because
in having been left very comfortable when his father passed,
John b. Bib was able to have leisure time with
which to cultivate his plants. And develop that limestone lettuce
(31:23):
listen no shade to Bib Lettuce I like it, but
that inheritance that afforded all of that was possible due
to the work of the hundreds of enslaved people his
father had owned over the years and who had worked
on his land, enabling him to amass a huge amount
of wealth. Major Bib is often cited as one of
the richest men in Kentucky. Today. Major Bib's home is
(31:45):
a museum, the Sikh Museum, which stands for Struggles for
emancipation and Equality in Kentucky. It's actually spread out among
six buildings on two sites. The buildings have been restored
in The museum's mission is to tell the stories of
the enslaved people emancipated by Major Richard bibb. In twenty nineteen,
there was a reunion at that museum and anyone who
(32:08):
was related to Bib, both black and white, was invited
to attend. And that's because it is highly likely and
widely believed that some of the enslaved children on the
Bib property prior to Major Bib's death had absolutely been
fathered by him. There are quite a few articles written
about that reunion a lot of them are very feel good,
but I would recommend one by journalist Linney O'Neil, which
(32:30):
was written for the Site and Scape, and it's titled
The Bitter Harvest of Richard Bibb, a descendant of slavery
confronts her inheritance. It is a very frank piece of
writing about the pain of such scenarios, things like this
big feel good reunion for some of the black attendees.
There's another reunion planned this ball. It's twenty twenty two.
(32:50):
This is in September for Bibb's descendants, and there'll be
a new documentary debut at that one titled Invented Before
You Were Born, which examines the issues of the Bibs
story and its legacy. And you can get more information
about that at seek museum dot org. That's see k
Museum dot org. Yeah, man, not about Lettuce, sort of
(33:14):
about Lettus. I just it's one of those things where
you realize, like, oh, this cute story about food is
really about the people that made it possible for a
white guy to have leisure time to make that food.
Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If
you'd like to send us a note our email addresses,
(33:34):
History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe
to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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