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Collection: Museum: University of St Andrews

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First major celebration of July 4th by Kentucky’s African American community at Camp Nelson. Sgt William A. Warfield, of the 119th US Colored Infantry pronounced the event evidence of “an age of wonders”: “to see so many thousands, who a year ago were slaves, congregate in the heart of a slave State and celebrate the day sacred to the cause of freedom, ‘with none to molest or make afraid,’ was a grand spectacle. It was the first time we have ever been permitted to celebrate the Nation’s Day.”

Amendment to the Constitution is ratified by three-fourths of states, abolishing slavery in the United States. Kentucky ratified the amendment in 1976.

The federal government appropriate 8 acres of land for use as a cemetery for Union soldiers: Camp Nelson National Cemetery is established.

Berea College, initially established in 1855, is reopened as the Berea Literary Institute by Rev. John G. Fee and colleagues with whom he had worked at Camp Nelson. Among the new students enrolled are Black soldiers recruited at Camp Nelson and recently mustered out of the army.

The First Convention of Colored Men in Kentucky is held in Lexington. Delegates assert that “the gallant heroic behavior of the Colored Soldiers of the American Army” during the war affirms their status as part and parcel of the “Great American Body Politic.”

The US Army officially closes Camp Nelson. Only about 250 refugees remain at the Home for Colored Refugees. Former refugees and USCT veterans establish the community of Ariel (today known as Hall). Many residents worked in agriculture and the distillery industry, and supported the Ariel Academy for over fifty years.

Congress authorizes the organization of permanent, all-Black Regular Army regiments for the first time. The units include former USCT veterans from Camp Nelson, who enlisted in the Regular Army, becoming the first Buffalo Soldiers.

125th US Colored Infantry are mustered out of service, and the last USCT regiment to be discharged.

the Freedman’s Bureau is withdrawn from Kentucky. In turn, local and state authorities withdraw their protections for Black citizens.

Congregants of the Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church in Louisville, KY, lead an unprecedented protest against racial discrimination, with a focus on the segregation of streetcars.

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