USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 35
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The national society agreed to let Kentucky spend all the money she should collect for sending her own negroes to Liberia. Efforts were early made to secure state aid, but not until 1856 was anything substan- tial received, when in this year the Legislature appropriated $5,000 an- nually for the purpose.18 But the colonization plan was a forlorn hope from the very outset. The amount of money necessary was many times larger than could ever have been raised, even had all slave-owners been willing to free their slaves without compensation-which was, of course, never the case. The whole colonization movement throughout the entire country is said to have removed in nineteen years the natural increase of only 97/2 days.19
For a time the Kentucky Colonization Society engaged the main in- terest of the state on the slavery question. Prior to this the Kentucky Abolition Society, which had grown out of the Baptist slavery activities in 1808, had thrived for a time, and efforts were made in 1817 to strengthen the society by organizing a branch in Frankfort among the legislators. Nothing, however, came of this attempt.20 In 1822 it had established a newspaper at Shelbyville, called the Abolition Intelligencer and Missionary Magasine. It came out only once a month, but it found a sentiment too weak to support it, and, being unable to strengthen it,
14 Colton, Life and Times of Henry Clay, I, 191.
15 Niles' Register, Vol. 44, p. 98.
16 Ibid., Vol. 68, p. 362; Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 68, 74, 76.
17 Martin, Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky, 52-54.
18 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 76.
19 Fish, Development of American Nationality, 164.
20 Breckinridge MSS. (1817). Letter from N. Burrows to Joseph C. Breckin- ridge, Jan. 23, 1817.
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after issuing twelve numbers, it ceased to exist. About 1827 the society itself died a natural death; the colonization society was by this time monopolizing the public interest.21
But there was of necessity some purely emancipation sentiment left, despite the popularity of colonization. Many people saw that what little emancipating was done to afford freedmen to take to Liberia could never touch the real solution of slavery, and some refused to deny themselves the opportunity to work for general emancipation, gradual though it might be. In 1828 a petition came up to the Legislature from Hopkins County praying that body that something be done toward the cause of emancipation. In its answer the Legislature admitted that slavery was an evil that all wished to be rid of, but it reminded the petitioners that Kentucky could not deal with the question like the Northern States, which had no negro population. "With them," it said, "the evil to be subdued was a pigmy; with us it is a monster; with them a superfluous and decaying limb was to be removed; with us the destroying worm is to be sought in the roots. There the system, full of health and vigor, submitted cheerfully to the simple cure; here the disease, exhibiting itself in its greatest strength and worst form, must receive a different treatment and be gradually subdued by persevering but not abrupt rem- edies." 22 A new emancipation society was desired, which should be very considerate of the slaveholders, but which would carry forward a definite program toward the ultimate freeing of all slaves. Different plans were being considered, but all pointed toward gradual emancipation. In 1831 John Green wrote Robert J. Breckinridge advocating the organization of a society whose members should pledge themselves to free all their slaves born after the following Fourth of July, the males at twenty-five and the females at twenty-one. He also suggested that prizes be offered for the best essays on the subject of emancipation and that they be published and distributed. "Let us proceed circumspectly," he said, "and fortify as we go. Let no untenable ground be occupied-and above all avoid mystery." 23
Breckinridge was interested in the movement, but apparently was not proceeding fast enough to suit Green. The latter was very anxious to organize the society as soon as possible. In a later letter he said : "Public opinion will not remain stationary. The spirit of emancipa- tion must advance or its antagonist, the slave-holding policy, will prevail, and we shall soon have gag laws passed, as in the South, which will put an effectual stop to all our efforts. Let us then have our meeting, organ- ize the society and commence publishing our sentiments in every quarter of the state. We can take the non-slaveholders with us, and they con- stitute the majority. With the slaveholders, the principal danger arises from insisting too much on the present tense. If you invite them to consider the measure as a work to be effected at some indefinite future day, they look on it as a thing that does not immediately effect [sic] their interests. It is only when you call on them to act now that their feelings revolt from it as from present death." 24 A few societies were organized within the following few years, but were or short lives. In 1833, under the influence of James G. Birney, a Kentuckian born in Danville, "The Kentucky Society for the Relief of the State from Slavery" was formed, with only nine members to begin with. For the next year or two it seemed to show some life, increasing to about seventy members and building up a few branches, but it soon thereafter died down. Another society was formed about the same time, known as the
21 Martin, Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky, 40-48.
22 Breckinridge MSS. (1828).
23 Breckinridge MSS. (1831). Letter dated January 12, 1831
24 Breckinridge MSS. (1832). To Robert J. Breckinridge, dated September 17, 1832.
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Ashmum Association, but it had even a more speedy death than the for- mer.25 As the first move in the effort to emancipate the offspring of slaves at a given time, fifty slaveholders agreed to meet in Lexington on July 4, 1832, "under the conviction that there are insurmountable obsta- cles to the general emancipation of the present generation of slaves, but equally convinced of the necessity and practicability of emancipating their future offspring." 26
Attacks on slavery wherever it existed were now moving forward with uncompromising vigor and intoleration, carried forward by Benja- min Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison. This was to be a war of aggression against a union with slaveholders; and the Constitution, which supported such a union was "a league with death and a covenant with Hell." Birney succeeded in bringing Kentucky directly into the movement by organizing in 1835 the Kentucky Abolition Society as a branch of the American Anti-Slavery Society, founded by Garrison two years previously. This represented a brand of slavery opposition which was new to Kentuckians; no half-way measures, such as gradual emanci- pation, were now to be used to waste time upon. Emancipation, imme- diate and complete, obtained by fair means or foul (for the cause hal- lowed the means), was now the battle-cry. This had the direct effect of killing at one blow the various emancipation organizations in the state, for the great body of Kentuckians were not yet willing to try so desperate a remedy as immediate emancipation, neither were they ready to be given advice by outsiders on a question which they considered to be peculiarly their own concern. When Kentuckians caught the significance of the movement almost consternation reigned. Meetings were held widely over the state, which passed resolutions of denunciation. One of the main causes that precipitated this outburst of feelings was the announcement of Birney that he would set up an anti-slavery paper, "The Philanthropist," at Danville. The indignation meeting held at Danville appointed thirty-three on a committee to draw up an address to Birney. The people were profoundly moved; they seriously proceeded to express their inalterable determination to stop Birney's paper. They said in part : "We address you now in calmness and candor that should characterize law-abiding men, as willing to avoid violence as they are willing to meet extremity, and advise you of the peril that must and immediately will attend the.execution of your purpose. We propose to you to postpone the setting up of your press and the publication of your paper until application can be had to the Legislature, who will by a posi- tive law set. rules for your observance, or, by a refusal to act, admonish us of our duty. We admonish you, sir, as citizens of the same neigh- borhood, as members of the same society in which you live and move, and for whose harmony and, quiet we feel the most sincere solicitude, to beware how you make an experiment here which no American slavehold- ing community has found itself able to bear." Birney, refusing to be intimidated, made preparations to establish this paper .. The committee then, in order to avoid violence, bought out the printer and threatened anyone who should aid the project. The postmaster declared he would receive no abolition papers in .the postoffice, if Birney published them; whereupon the latter now became convinced of the impossibility of his task and left for Cincinnati.27
Although Birney was now removed from , the state and played no direct part in its slavery discussion and agitation, he left behind others who were willing to carry the fight on. In 1835 a meeting was held in Shelby County, which passed resolutions condemning slavery as "both a
25 Martin, Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky, 68-72.
26 Niles' Register, Vol. 42, p. 300.
27 Martin, Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky, 74-78.
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moral and a political evil, and a violation of the natural rights of man." But this meeting was not actuated by an unreasoning abolition sen- timent, which had characterized Birney's latter course in the state. It declared that "the additional value which would be given to our property and its products by the introduction of free white labor, would in itself be sufficient, under a system of gradual emancipation, to transport the whole of our colored population." Its conservatism was further attested by the resolution, "That no system of emancipation will meet with our approbation, unless colonization be inseparably connected with it, and that any scheme of emancipation which will leave the blacks within our borders, is more to be depreciated than slavery itself." 28
The Presbyterians, who had long been interested as a religious de- nomination in slavery, in 1835 issued "An Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky, proposing a Plan for the Instruction and Emancipation of their Slaves." John C. Young, president of Centre College, was the author of the address. "We all admit," he said, "that the system of slavery which exists among us is not right. Why then do we assist in perpetuating it? Why do we make no serious efforts to terminate it? Is it not because our perception of its sinfulness is very feeble and indis- tinct, while our perception of the difficulties of instructing and emanci- pating our slaves is strong and clear? As long as we believe that slavery, as it exists among us, is a light evil in the sight of God, so long will we feel inclined to pronounce every plan that can be devised for its termina- tion inexpedient or impracticable." 29 Slavery was declared to be bad and "in violation of the laws of God" because it deprived people of the rights of property, personal liberty, and personal security, and because it produced great cruelty on the part of master, and licentiousness among slaves, and demoralized both whites and blacks. It was a "system which exhibits powers without responsibility, toil without recompense, life with- out liberty, law without justice, wrongs without redress, infamy without crime, punishment without guilt, and families without marriage-a sys- tem which will not only make victims of the present unhappy genera- tion, inflicting upon them the degradation, the contempt, the lassitude, and the anguish of hopeless oppression, but which even aims at trans- mitting this heritage of injury and woe to their children and their chil- dren's children, down to their latest posterity." But with all this right- eous indignation, the radical abolition plans emanating from the North were not urged. Emancipation should be gradual and according to a system-a period should be set for each slave at the end of which a termination of his servitude should result. But in the meantime he should be educated for citizenship; he should be prepared to stand alone when freedom should come. According to the plan, "Let the full future liberty of the slave be secured against all contingencies by a recorded deed of emancipation, to take effect at a specified time. In the mean- while, let the servant he treated with kindness; let all those things which degrade him be removed; let , him enjoy means of instruction ; let his moral and religious improvement be sought; let his prospects be pre- sented before him, to stimulate him to acquire those habits of foresight, economy, industry, activity, skill, and integrity, which will fit him for -using well the liberty he is soon to enjoy." 30
But during the period, 1830-1840, the progress toward emancipa- tion, gradual or immediate, lost ground. A reaction was setting in. The activity of northern abolitionists did an infinite deal of harm to the gradual emancipation cause in Kentucky. In the face of the onset of outside meddling, the opinion of the state tended to unite in solid opposi -
28 Niles' Register, Vol. 48, P. 312.
29 R. L. Stanton, The Church and the Rebellion (New York, 1864), 424.
30 Stanton, The Church and the Rebellion, 438, 439.
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tion against interference with slavery in any way. Many who had here- tofore joined heartily , in the movement for gradual emancipation either became lukewarm or deserted it altogether. Henry Clay, who had always been the friend of emancipation, was ill pleased at the meddling by outside abolitionists. On this he said in 1839, "Instead of advancing that cause [emancipation] by their efforts, they have thrown back for half a century, the prospect of any species of emancipation of the Afri- can, race, gradual or immediate, in any of the states. The proposition in Kentucky for a gradual emancipation, did not prevail; but it was sus- tained by a large and respectable minority. That minority had increased, and was increasing, until the abolitionists began their operations. The effect has been to dissipate all prospects whatever, for the present, of any scheme of gradual or other emancipation. The people of that state have become shocked and alarmed by these abolition movements, and the number, who would now favor a system even of gradual eman- cipation, is probably less than it was in the years 1798-'9." A movement for a constitutional convention, in which the friends of emancipation were expecting to redeem Kentucky from slavery had gained great headway, and a vote was taken on the question in 1838, but disastrous failure resulted. Clay laid the failure directly to the Northern abolition- ists. "But for the agitation of the question of abolition," said Clay, "in states, whose population, in the opinion of the people of Kentucky, had no right to interfere in the matter, the vote for a convention would have been much larger, if it had not been carried. Only about one-fourth of the people voted for it." "Prior to the agitation of this question of abolition," he continued, "there was a progressive melioration in the condition of slaves throughout all the slave states. In some of them, schools of instruction were opened by humane and religious persons. These are all now checked ; and a spirit of insubordination having,shown itself in some localities, traceable, it is believed, to abolition movements . and exertions, the legislative authorities have found it expedient to in -. fuse fresh vigor into the police, and laws which regulate the conduct of the slaves." 31
The Legislature in a set of resolutions in 1836 resented the officious- ness of the Northern abolition societies. It declared that for the institu- tion of slavery, "the people of Kentucky hold themselves responsible to no earthly tribunal, but will refer their case to Him alone, through the mysterious dispensations of whose Providence, dominion has been given to the white man over the black. He alone may judge of its compati- bility with his will, and of its political expediency, we who witness its practical operation, are best competent to speak." As to the charges of throttling the freedom of speech and discussion, "Enough has transpired to convince them, that under the miserable perverted name of free dis- cussion, these incendiaries will be permitted to scatter their fire-brands throughout the country, with no check but that which may be imposed by the feeble operation of public opinion. * The freedom of * the press is one thing-licentiousness another." And Kentucky pub- lished to the country that the slave states "are hereby assured of the earnest co-operation of the state of Kentucky, to resist, at all hazards, every effort to interfere with that subject either by Congress, any state, or combination of private persons." 32 From now on, opposition of a bitter kind was constantly the result of the abolition missionaries' attempt to convert Kentucky. Governor Clark in 1838 warned the abolitionists of the danger of their course. He advocated the passing of laws which would keep their propaganda out of the state, as their real purpose, he
31 Colton, Life and Times of Henry Clay, I, 195.
32 Acts of Kentucky, 1835, pp. 683-686. Resolutions dated March I.
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believed, was to inflame the minds of the slaves rather than convert the slaveholder.33
Kentucky was developing more and more into a common interest with the rest of the slave holding states, and her leadership was ,coming to be identified with the leadership of the South. The Missouri Compro- mise had played an important part in the development of Kentucky feeling on the subject of slavery. She not only saw an attempt being made by a growing power to exclude slavery from a state, but she saw something even more dangerous, the subversion of the constitution by imposing conditions on one state not required of the others. The Legislature preferring to place its main objection on the former prin- ciple, rather than on the latter, declared that it "refrains from expressing any opinion either in favor or against the principle of slavery." 34 The St. Tammany Society of Lexington expressed in a toast at a banquet a more resolute feeling: "The Sovereign and Independent State of Missouri. 'Bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.' Her enemies in strik- ing at her must pierce us through the heart." 35 This same growing in- toleration of slavery expressed itself in 1844 in the recommendation of Massachusetts to amend the constitution so as to abolish the additional representation in Congress given the slave state through the operation of the "Three-fifths Rule" on slavery. In answer to this Kentucky said that she believed this attempt at amendment "would not only tend, by its agitation, to weaken the bonds of union that now holds them together, but that any effort to carry, their views out would most undoubtedly dis- solve the union on the States." 36
Kentucky was brought into direct collision with Northern states on the slavery question at a very early time, in connection with runaway slaves. The long line of the northern border of the state abutted on three free states, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the barrier of the Ohio River could easily be crossed by the fugitive slave, especially when aided by sympathizers from beyond the river. Almost with the begin- ning of the nineteenth century slaves were making their escape across the Ohio, and the difficulties surrounding attempts to recover them were growing and becoming more exasperating. In 1816 the Legisla- ture complained that there was too much obstruction in the states of Ohio and Indiana against the apprehension of fugitive slaves, and called upon the governor to enter into correspondence with the governors of those states to secure better laws against runaways.37 In 1817 Gov- ernor Slaughter reported to the Legislature that he had complied with their resolution and was happy to inform them that the governors beyond the river had promised "to remove as far as practicable every cause of complaint." 38 The Ohio governor replied that he was informed "there is neither a defect in the laws or want of energy on the part of those who execute them." "That a universal prejudice," he said, "against slavery does exist and is cherished is to be expected, and that a desire as universal to get rid of every species of negro population exists, is, in my opinion, as certain." 39
With the agitation of gradual emancipation, the slaves became mildly restless; but when the abolition movement got well started and began to send out its emissaries, who not only sought to make the slaves dis- contented, but even concocted plots and assisted them to escape beyond the Ohio, the slaves began to run away in ever increasing numbers.
83 Kentucky Gazette, Dec. 6, 1838. Message to the Legislature of December 4th. 84 Niles' Register, Vol. 17, p. 344.
35 Kentucky Gazette, May 19, 1820.
38 Acts of Kentucky, 1843, pp. 269-279.
37 Acts of Kentucky, 1816, p. 282.
38 Niles' Register, Vol. 13, P. 386. Message to Legislature, December 2, 1817.
39 W. H. Smith, A Political History of Slavery (New York, 1903), I, 21.
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The elements of continual friction were called into play; the northern banks of the river were swarming with people ready and anxious to help slaves escape and not averse to crossing into Kentucky to carry on their work, and the southern banks afforded many hunters who carried on their quests with increasing exasperation to the inhabitants of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. There were abuses on both sides. To assist a slave to escape was in direct violation of a law of Congress, and as slave-owners had some reason to think, as objectionable as to steal any other portions of their property. On the other hand, slave-hunters north of the Ohio developed too often into kidnapping expeditions. Free ne- groes were brought back either through mistake or design, too often. In 1819 a free negro was kidnapped in Ohio and sold in Kentucky by one Bell, who upon the requisition of the Ohio Governor, was promptly delivered over by the Governor of Kentucky. In this connection the former said, "While enormities like the one complained of are committed, the citizens of Kentucky should not complain that those of Ohio should feel an interest in requiring proof of ownership however inconvenient to the proprietors, before they consent to the removal of negroes against their will. The want of such evidence and the violence of attempting to remove them without the warrant of the constituted authority, I suspect, have been the chief causes of the difficulty which actual proprietors have experienced in reclaiming their slaves in Ohio; and the villainy of un- principled kidnappers has aroused the people in some districts into a ven- geance which I hope you will think laudable, to guard against the per- petrators of so dark a crime." 40 Kentucky's laws were, perhaps, unduly generous to the person wanted beyond the river for carrying off free negroes. He was given the right to prove before a Kentucky court that he was not the person wanted or that he was the actual owner of the slave, and on the establishment of proof in either case he was relieved from extradition. 41
In the latter '30s the fugitive slaves crossing the Ohio greatly in- creased. The trial in 1838 of John B. Mahan, a Methodist preacher, in the Circuit Court of Mason County, for assisting slaves to escape from Kentucky, attracted much attention. It was proved that he had aided fifteen, but as it had been done in Ohio, the court dismissed the case on the ground of want of jurisdiction.42 Escapes were becoming so fre- quent and enticements so clever that the Legislature often took occasion to call upon the governor to bring the state's northern neighbors to a sense of their duty. In one set of resolutions it was declared that a master could hardly risk his slaves on a steamer with himself any more for fear of their escape. Although feeling that there were only a few people across the river "by whose artful, cruel, ill digested and fanatic notions of civil rights, the injuries referred to are inflicted," yet, fearing a continuance of this practice might strain good relations, the Legislature called for better legislation on the question from Ohio, Indiana, and Illi- nois.43 The charges of kidnapping were made often without any basis in fact. Those seeking slaves, after recovering them, were often set upon by mobs and the slaves freed, or they were arrested and held as kidnap- pers, before they could take their slaves to a magistrate to establish own- ership. According to the Legislature "The master thus finds himself a prisoner and the servant set free." As a result of such conditions, the masters looking for their slaves had to work with great secrecy and often with little effect. The Legislature declared that it wanted laws to protect free negroes in the states north of the Ohio, but at the same time
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