On the Auction Block

Abstract

Born a slave in Bourbon County in 1818, Elisha Green was taken to Mason County in 1828 to be sold with his mother and siblings at auction to settle the estate of his owner, Charles Dobyns. He came into the possession of Dobyns's widow, Elizabeth Dobyns. She lent him to her daughter for four years, after which he was returned to the widow, who had remarried. He admired her new husband, Walter Warder, pastor of the Baptist church in May's Lick. Green underwent a religious conversion while plowing a field, in imitation of the Biblical prophet Elisha, whom God told Elijah to adopt as his successor. Green apparently saw himself as an eventual successor to Warder, too, as a successful Baptist preacher. Green married Susan Young, a fellow slave, in 1835. This chapter discusses slavery in Kentucky compared to that in other states.