Alfred O. Robards

Alfred Olahan Robards was a 19th-century slave trader and grocer of Kentucky, United States.

Alfred O. Robards
"Likely Young Negroes FOR SALE. I will keep on hand for sale from this time till the first of April, 1859, in HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. from 25 to 50 young and likely negroes both sexes. Prices reasonable. A.O ROBARDS, Agent" (Clarksville Chronicle, Clarksville, Tenn.)
Born(1824-05-10)May 10, 1824
Kentucky?
DiedJanuary 10, 1884(1884-01-10) (aged 59)
Harrodsburg, Kentucky, U.S.
Other namesA. O. Robards

According to a family history published in 1910, A. O. Robards was the youngest child of Nancy Merriman and George Lewis Robards (b. 1795).[1] Alfred O. Robards sometimes worked at slave trading in partnership with his brother Lewis C. Robards.[2] The Robards brothers may have started as field agents for, first, Lexington slave trader Joseph H. Northcutt, and, second, Lexington slave trader R. W. Lucas.[3] Alfred O. Robards was one of a number of agents who worked for Lewis Robards "in all the Bluegrass counties and those bordering on the Ohio River—buying and selling slaves, and sometimes stealing and kidnapping free Negroes."[4] A. O. Robards was likely involved in some trading independent of L. C. Robards.[5][6]

According to Carol Wilson in Freedom at Risk: The Kidnapping of Free Blacks in America, 1780-1865, circa 1851, Alfred O. Robards had possession of Hilda Polley, Mary Jane Polley, Martha Polley, and Peyton Polley Jr., four of the Peyton Polley children who were kidnapped from their beds in Lawrence County, Ohio, June 6, 1850, by a gang of four white men led by David Justice.[7]

At the time of the 1860 census, Robards was a resident of the fourth ward of Lexington, Kentucky, occupation trader.[8] At the time of the 1870 and 1880 censuses he was married with a family, and working as a grocer in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.[9][10] Robards was a master mason in the Warren Lodge of Kentucky Freemasons.[11] He appears in an 1884 Kentucky business directory as partner in a grocery, hardware, and farm implements business, "special agents, Milburn wagon."[12] Robards died in 1884 after a "long and painful illness" and was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.[13]

See also

References
  1. Robards, James Harvey (1910). History and genealogy of the Robards family. [Whiteland, Ind.] p. 33 – via Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center & Internet Archive.
  2. Smith, Gerald L. (2002). Lexington, Kentucky. Arcadia Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7385-1437-6.
  3. Bancroft, Frederic (2023) [1931, 1996]. Slave Trading in the Old South (Original publisher: J. H. Fürst Co., Baltimore). Southern Classics Series. Introduction by Michael Tadman (Reprint ed.). Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8. LCCN 95020493. OCLC 1153619151.
  4. Coleman, J. Winston (1940). Slavery times in Kentucky. State Library of Pennsylvania. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. p. 211.
  5. "$100 Reward". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1859-01-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  6. "Likely Young Negroes for Sale". Clarksville Chronicle. 1859-01-07. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  7. Ellis, Atiba (2012-12-01). "Polley v. Ratcliff: A New Way to Address an Original Sin?". West Virginia Law Review. 115 (2). ISSN 0043-3268.
  8. "Entry for S R Thompson and P Thompson, 1860", United States Census, 1860 – via FamilySearch
  9. "Entry for A O Robards and Sue Robards, 1870", United States Census, 1870 – via FamilySearch
  10. "Entry for A. O. Robards and Sue Robards, 1880", United States Census, 1880 – via FamilySearch
  11. Kentucky, Freemasons Grand Lodge of (1878). Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky...
  12. Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory. R.L. Polk & Company. 1884. p. 256.
  13. "Mr. A. O. Robards". Kentucky Advocate. 1884-01-18. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
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