James Bradley

Born in Africa in the early nineteenth century, James Bradley was brought to America as an infant by slave traders. By age 18 he managed his master's Arkansas plantation, and over five years he earned enough money to purchase his freedom. As a freeman he crossed the Ohio River at Covington, the legal and symbolic divide between slavery and freedom, and enrolled at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati in 1834. Bradley was the only ex-slave to participate in the famous Lane Seminary debates on slavery and abolitionism, and his participation stood as an eloquent witness to the equality of all. In his speech, he declared that the great desire of slaves was "liberty and education."

Covington, Kentucky · United States