Event Title
Start Date
9-10-2008 3:15 PM
Description
Serving as guides and explorers at Mammoth Cave partially rescued four men from the obscurity of enslavement. Stephen Bishop, Materson Bransford, Nicholas Bransford and a young man named Alfred all had their very existence documented in the written journals and diaries of various nineteenth century Mammoth Cave visitors. They were physically described, their personalities contemplated, their intelligence gauged, their dialects imitated. At least one abolitionist characterized Stephen Bishop as a charismatic natural leader who could govern the citizenry of freed men in Liberia, should he choose to relocate there.
Recommended Citation
Lyons, Joy Medley, "Slave Guide Legacy at Mammoth Cave" (2008). Mammoth Cave Research Symposia. 11.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/mc_reserch_symp/9th_Research_Symposium_2008/Day_one/11
Included in
Animal Sciences Commons, Forest Sciences Commons, Geology Commons, Hydrology Commons, Other Earth Sciences Commons, Plant Sciences Commons
Slave Guide Legacy at Mammoth Cave
Serving as guides and explorers at Mammoth Cave partially rescued four men from the obscurity of enslavement. Stephen Bishop, Materson Bransford, Nicholas Bransford and a young man named Alfred all had their very existence documented in the written journals and diaries of various nineteenth century Mammoth Cave visitors. They were physically described, their personalities contemplated, their intelligence gauged, their dialects imitated. At least one abolitionist characterized Stephen Bishop as a charismatic natural leader who could govern the citizenry of freed men in Liberia, should he choose to relocate there.