Slavery Laws in Kentucky

Date: 1792 to 1865
Location: Kentucky, United States

Slavery Laws in Kentucky

Slaves accompanied early white explorers into the Kentucky area in the 1750s and 1760s, and they were among permanent residents in 1775 when Virginia began actively encouraging settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.^[1] In 1776 Virginia officially created Kentucky as a county; just sixteen years later, Kentucky became a state in 1792.

Across the state, Kentucky slaves were primarily employed in agriculture, though they were also used in mining and manufacturing to some extent. In addition to these occupations, early Kentucky residents employed slave labor in road building, mill work, wool factories and various tradecrafts.

Important Dates in Law and Policy

The following statewide dates should be helpful for black heritage research. This list is limited to laws pertaining to legal issues of ownership, which may assist in the search for documents.

• 1790 A chancery court proceeding (Virginia) determined that when an slave owner died intestate, the high court of chancery should direct the sale of the enslaved person and distribute the proceeds as necessary.^[2]

• 1798 Kentucky statutes (2 Litt. 113):^[3]

• No one in the state of Kentucky could be made a slave who was not a slave as of 17 Oct 1785 excepting the children of enslaved females (Sec. 1).
• A penalty of $300 was imposed for importing enslaved blacks into Kentucky from other countries, including any slaves imported to the United States after 1 Jan 1789 (Sec. 25).
• Absolute rights to any enslaved person inherited by or otherwise acquired by a married woman were vested in her husband, even if the slaves were aquired prior to marriage (Sec. 34).
• Slave sales were not required to be recorded with the exception of gifts, marriage settlements, deeds of trust or mortgage (Sec. 31).
  • Gifts of slaves without deed or will duly proven and recorded by the county court were void if the donor had maintained possession (Sec. 41, 42).
• Slaves were defined as real estate, to be distributed among heirs-at-law in the same manner as land (i.e. to widows and children; in the absence of children, to parents or siblings); slaves could be sold for payment of estate debts; slaves of decendents without heirs were not liable to be escheated but would be sold (Sec. 28-30).
  • Slaves could only be sold by estate executors/administrators:
    • when required to pay the debts of the deceased, and then only after any personal estate had first been sold (Sec. 37);
    • if an equal division of slaves among inheritors was not possible (Sec. 40);
    • if the descendent was without heirs (Sec. 29).
  • Slaves could be annexed to land by will or deed (Sec. 38).
  • Widows could choose slaves by dower right (Sec. 39).
  • Slaves were not liable to forfeiture for the debts of the owner, except in cases where land could be forfeited (Sec. 36).
• Any slave owner above the age of 18 could emancipate their enslaved persons by will, though the court could require the estate or its executors/administrators post bond and security to ensure any required maintenance of the emancipated person so that they would not become a burden on the state. The county clerk issued certificates of emancipation in such cases (Sec. 27, 35).

• 1808 Kentucky statute (3 Litt. 499):^[4]

• Free blacks and mulattos were prohibited from migrating into Kentucky (Sec. 1).

• 1815 Kentucky statutes (5 Litt. 293):^[3]

• Importation of slaves to Kentucky for the sole purpose of sale was prohibited. The fine was $200 for both the buyer and seller as well as $600 per slave for the importer (Sec. 2).
  • The statute of limitations was 5 years (Sec. 3).
  • Any seller so charged was to be aquitted upon proof of taking an oath within 60 days of immigration stating his intention to reside in Kentucky and that he did not intend to sell his slaves. Oaths to be filed with the county clerk (Sec. 3).
  • Any buyer so charged was exempt from penalty if he did not violate the statute knowingly.
  • Slaves acquired by gift or inheritance from outside the state were exempt.
  • There was minimal enforcement: no convictions were ever obtained.^[1]

• 1828 The Kentucky Colonization Society was founded as an affiliate of the American Colonization Society. The group favored emancipation, but saw removal of freedmen from the state as a key issue. The Kentucky Colonization Society began arranging the transport of former slaves to Liberia in 1833. ^[1]
  • Passenger lists to Liberia that include Kentucky residents:

• Ship Ajax
• Ship Saluda
• Ship Barque Union
• Ship Banshee

• See also: The Liberia project on WikiTree.
• Transcriptions of census records from Liberia are available online at Christine's African American Genealogy Website

• 1831 A Kentucky statute decided that enslaved persons hired out were to be valued for tax on the owner, not the hirer.^[2] [This implies that prior to this date, tax records may include hired slaves, not exclusively owned slaves; and equally that lack of taxation might not necessarily be indicative that no slaves were owned: needs further research.]

• 1833 The Kentucky General Assembly passed The Nonimportation Act of 1833 in an effort to bolster the 1815 limits on slave importation. One of the strongest measures passed by slave-holding states, the law was unique in that it not only excluded importation for commercial purposes, but also for personal use. Slaves acquired by inheritance or gift were exempt. Enforcement of these restrictions remained problematic.^[1][4]

• 1849 The Nonimportation Act of 1833 was repealed. In the 1850s Kentucky saw increasing commerce in the sale of slaves southward. Overall, between 1830 and 1860 the slave commerce in Kentucky shipped approximately 80,000 people to southern states.^[1]

• 1852 Kentucky statutes:^[5]

• The legal status of slaves was changed from real estate to personal estate (Art. 1, Sec. 3).
• Free people of color were prohibited from owning slaves other than parents, spouses or descendants (Art. 1, Sec. 6).
• Owners (or their representatives) of slaves for life were required to file an inventory of the names, genders and ages of those slaves annually in January with the county clerk (Art. 1, Sec. 8)
  • Such slaves could not be removed from the state without consent of the person in remainder (Art. 1, Sec. 9).
• Emancipated slaves were required to leave the state (Art. 9, Sec. 1.4).
• No slave over age 65 (or otherwise incapable of labor) could be emancipated unless the owner provided transportation out of the state and one year's financial support.

• 1857 The Kentucky Colonization Society ended its operations. The group had sent a total of 658 former slaves to Liberia.^[1]

• 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by the federal government, freeing slaves in confederate states. Since Kentucky had not seceded from the Union, the Proclamation did not apply.

• 1865 Slavery in Kentucky was abolished per the federal government and the 13th Amendment (which Kentucky had not ratified).

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Kleber, John E., editor-in-chief; and Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, James C. Klotter, associate editors. The Kentucky Encyclopedia, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY) 1992; pp. 494, 826-9.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Kentucky Slave Laws, In brief," Shackles, Chains and Forgotten Souls website: https://web.archive.org/web/20220624131525/https://shacklesandchains.wordpress.com/kentucky-slave-laws-in-brief/ accessed and archived 24 Jun 2022.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Swigert, Jacob and William Littell, "A Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky," Kendall and Russell, Printers for the State (Frankfort, Kentucky) 1822: accessed 14 Jul 2022 via HathiTrust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112105058210&view=1up&seq=505&skin=2021 chapter 174, pp. 1149-1168 (images 505-524).
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Morehead, C.S. and Mason Brown, "A Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky," Albert Hodges (Frankfort, KY) 1834; Vol II, pp. 1219-22 (images 424-9 of 856) and 1471-84 (images 673-86 of 856) : accessed 26 Jun 2022 via GooglePlay and archived at the Internet Archive.
5. ↑ Stanton, Richard H., "The Revised Statutes of Kentucky," Volume II, Robert Clark & Co. (Cincinnati OH) 1860: accessed via GoogleBooks 25 Jul 2022; chapter 93, pp. 359-388.

Further Reading:

• Understanding the Complexities of Slavery in Kentucky, Tony Curtis, Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, Kentucky Historical Society, 2014.
• The Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, University of Kentucky (UK Libraries);
• A History of Blacks in Kentucky: From Slavery to Segregation, 1760-1891, Marion B. Lucas, Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY) 2003, accessed via University of Kentucky Libraries .
• My Old Kentucky Home: Black History in the Bluegrass State, Luther Adams, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 113, No. 2/3, Building a History of Twentieth-century Kentucky (Spring/Summer 2015), pp. 385-419 (35 pages).
• Negroes for Sale: The Slave Trade in Antebellum Kentucky, Benjamin Lewis Fitzpatrick; Dissertation (Notre Dame, IN) Dec 2008.
• Kentucky Antislavery Thought, 1830-1850, J. Strassmaier; Master's Thesis (Loyola University, IL) Jan 1963.
• History of Slavery in Kentucky at Wikipedia.