Cheapside Park

Cheapside was a major marketplace and one of the largest markets in the south prior to the American Civil War. One of the largest slave markets in the south existed at Cheapside,[2] though it was detested by locals.[3] Cheapside was also host to the sale of "fancy girls", young women of mixed race sold as sex slaves.[4] "Fancy girls" were often transported to Kentucky, due to its reputation for being the largest supplier of these young enslaved women outside of the New Orleans area.[5] However, many of these slaves were born and held within Kentucky's very own borders.[5] The Cheapside slave market allowed slave traders the opportunity to purchase slaves for a low price, which encouraged movement for resale to a more fruitful and profitable market - the deep South.[6] A pair of slave traders, Downing and Hughes, noted raising 57 percent capital on their sale of 13 slaves - purchasing the 13 individuals for $5,292.50, expending $257.72 during their travels to Natchez, Mississippi for resale, and receiving $8,695.00 upon final sale.[6] The total profit, $3,144.78, was encouraging to Downing and Hughes - and eventually, these large returns on investment would encourage others to participate in the arbitrage of slaves, expanding the vastness of the slave trade.[6] Louisville, Henderson, Paducah, and Maysville would become a departure point for many slave traders, their positioning upon the Ohio River would allow easy travel into the Mississippi River, and ultimately the lower South - the more profitable slave markets.[7]

The Kentucky General Assembly attempted to ban or at least cripple the slave trade in 1833 with the Non-Importation Act, which banned the importation of slaves into the Commonwealth for the purpose of selling them.[8] The slave trade was outlawed in 1864. The Cheapside market continued until 1922 when it was declared a public nuisance and banned.

Future President Abraham Lincoln was visiting his wife's family in 1846 when her father, Robert Todd, purchased five slaves at Cheapside. Lincoln may have been present during the auction.[9]

The earliest reference to the name dates to 1813 in an advertisement for Todd and Smith Wholesale Grocery, owned by Mary Todd Lincoln's father Robert Smith Todd. That building is now occupied by a bourbon bar known as The Bluegrass Tavern.[10] Cheapside is a common English name meaning "marketplace" from Old English ceapan, "to buy." The name frequently occurs in literature.[11]

In 1811, the Pope Villa, named after its first inhabitants, began construction.[12] Kentucky Senator John Pope purchased land from John Maxwell for the Pope Villa to be constructed to serve as his residence as a seated governor - however, the deed was not finalized until 1814.[13][12] This home was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who is often considered to be the "father of American architecture".[14] Latrobe had also notably designed the U.S. Capitol Building upon Capitol Hill.[14] The Pope Villa played a prominent role, involved with many affluential figures, in the landscape of American politics and economics - specifically regarding the commodification of human beings.

In 2022, the Bluegrass Trust owns and manages the property - efforts to produce a tour of the historical site are currently underway with the collaboration between the Bluegrass Trust, University of Kentucky History department staff and students, and other departmental researchers.

In August 2020, Lexington's governing body, the Urban County council, voted to rename this area Henry A. Tandy Centennial Park,[1] after Henry A. Tandy, an entrepreneur, leader, and mason whose construction company laid the brick under the Courthouse's stone façade.[23] The impetus for the reimagining of this area began in 2017 with the Take Back Cheapside community organization.[24][2] The council voted unanimously that year[25] to remove two state-funded statues celebrating confederate soldiers, Gen. John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge, Confederate Secretary of War. The historical marker on the corner of Short and Upper Streets was commissioned by the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.[26]

• Slave markets and slave jails in the United States