The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy

2. America Bourne

2 America Bourne On January 6, 1861, near the town of Winchester in Clark County , Kentucky, on the Pleasant Green farm owned by David Tanner, America Murphy gave birth to a baby boy she named Isaac.1 Or at least this is what we can glean from the little hard evidence that exists . How America came to be on the farm, where exactly she gave birth to her son, who attended her, and whether the boy’s father, Jerry Skillman, was present will never be known. What we do know is that because of her status as an enslaved black woman, the particulars related to her bringing a child into the world were deemed too unimportant to record—birth certificates were not issued for children born to slaves. Still, when the right questions are asked, the gaps in our knowledge about Isaac Murphy’s beginnings become less daunting, and his life unfolds before our eyes.2 The lone thread that connects the facts and fictions of Murphy ’s life is the location of his birth. Kentucky birth records reveal that on January 6, 1861, a nameless black male child was born to a nameless black slave woman who lived on the Tanner farm.3 Although there is no conclusive evidence that this was baby Isaac and his mother America, it is the only birth listed for the Tanner farm in the years 1860–1861. Thus, the corroborating evidence is strong. In addition, Murphy’s 1896 obituary, written by close friend and The Prince of Jockeys 44 turf man Llewellyn P. Tarleton, confirms the time and place of the famous jockey’s birth. More important, this key shred of evidence provides a window into the past, suggesting the type of environment America Murphy was forced to negotiate daily in an effort to protect her child and herself from the abuses and degradations of slavery , while simultaneously keeping an eye toward the future. Even 150 years after Isaac Murphy’s birth, there is still a veil of curiosity surrounding the early life of one of the most unlikely heroes of the mid- to late nineteenth century. Scholars of African American history, sports, and Southern history share an interest in Murphy, based on his larger-than-life accomplishments on the turf despite the alleged inferiority of people of African descent. Conventional wisdom aside, the institution of slavery was predicated on the ability of the powerful white elite to control an American landscape fat with resources and untapped potential. To do so, the white elite also had to control the lives of blacks, who provided the labor needed to grow America’s wealth. Thus, the white majority worked systematically to regulate and manage the narratives associated with people of African descent and their individual and collective histories , especially those that demonstrated blacks’ ability to rise above their circumstances. To be born disconnected from one’s history— past and present—is one sure way to confuse and alienate an individual ’s sense of destiny and purpose. A month after Abraham Lincoln’s election as president of the United States and South Carolina’s secession from the Union, America Murphy, nearing the end of her pregnancy, may have chanced to think about her fate in the soon to be divided country of strangers. The institution of slavery was a firmly embedded and socially acceptable reality in the Bluegrass region, and black labor had been key to the success of white farmers and manufacturers there. Yet Kentucky would become a major factor in the conflict between the Federal government and the slave states over the states’ right to chose their own future with regard to the slavery question: allow slavery to expand into the western territories, or limit it to the states that currently supported the institution. While politicians argued and fought over America’s destiny, America Murphy prepared to give birth. America Bourne 45 Whether she wanted to bring a new life into the world is not known; whether she saw the world as a sinking ship of despair and degradation or recognized Lincoln’s election as the beginning of a wave of change is not detailed in any journal, memoir, or letter. Chances are that she was hopeful, like most in her situation, that she would someday be free and that her child would have a better, freer, more just life. For America Murphy, January 6, 1861, was a day of great hope...