hile America was fighting for freedom in 1777, Frank McWorter was born enslaved on a South Carolina plantation. His mother, Juda, had been abducted from West Africa. His father was his mother’s enslaver, a man by the name of George McWorter.

The elder McWorter purchased additional land in Kentucky in 1795 and moved Frank and his other enslaved people there to develop the new plantation. The enslaver later worked out a deal to lease Frank’s labor for a cheap price to other settlers in the area. This gave McWorter additional income on top of the free labor he still required Frank to do for him. Fortunately, Frank was allowed to earn and save some of the money he received. It was during these years that Frank married an enslaved woman, named Lucy, from another plantation in 1799. They had several children and desired freedom for their family.

Frank used his savings to buy a saltpeter (potassium nitrate) mine and did a lot of the mining himself. His wealth multiplied during the War of 1812 because saltpeter was necessary for gunpowder. Frank was able to buy Lucy’s freedom in 1817 for $800. She was pregnant with their son, Squire, making him the first freeborn family member. Frank bought his own freedom two years later for $800 and renamed himself Free Frank. Free Frank and Lucy continued working hard to buy freedom for their 16 children and grandchildren. It cost them $14,000, which might be about $300,000 today. They shouldn’t have had to buy their freedom, but no price was too high for their family.