A man who helped enslaved people escape to freedom—and was convicted in Kenton County for it—was among those pardoned by Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday in celebration of Juneteenth.
The pardons were all posthumous. The 43 people around the commonwealth to receive pardons, both white and Black, were convicted for harboring or otherwise helping enslaved people escape slavery during the antebellum period, the era before the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. The Kentucky General Assembly had outlawed aiding and harboring escapees in 1835; federal laws outlawing such practices date back to the late 1700s.
The man convicted in Kenton County was Issac Johnson, a white man who was imprisoned between 1851 and 1853. Johnson is the only person on the list convicted within LINK nky’s coverage area, although there are several people convicted in nearby Bracken County who also appear on the list. It’s not clear from the governor’s list if Johnson was originally from Kenton County or from somewhere else in Kentucky.
“When we have a chance to correct a historical wrong, we should do it,” said Beshear in a press release announcing the pardons. “That’s why ahead of Juneteenth, I am posthumously pardoning 43 brave Kentuckians who were wrongfully imprisoned for helping enslaved people escape to freedom. These leaders are heroes—not criminals and they and their families deserve the justice of having their names cleared.”
You can read the complete list of pardoned people and some brief notes about their backgrounds, as well as the text of the governor’s executive order issuing the pardons, below.
