he owner of the value of the executed
slave appears never to have been questioned to any extent even by the
abolitionists in the legislature until the session of 1830 when a bill
was introduced for the repeal of the law. The bill was lost but in the
course of the debate it was stated that while Kentucky contained over
160,000 slaves only about one fifth of the tax-paying whites were
slaveholders and that $68,000 had already been paid out of the State
treasury as indemnity for slaves executed. After the defeat of this
bill there was offered a substitute which proposed that a tax of one
fourth of one per cent should be levied upon the value of all slaves
in the State for the creation of a fund out of which to make such
disbursements, but this was likewise lost.[295]

Until 1811 there were no special enactments on slave crimes and their
punishments. The court had, therefore, more or less range in the
exactment of penalties but the legislature of 1811 passed during the
first fortnight of its session a specific law governing slave crimes.
Only four offenses were to be regarded as punishable by death: (1)
conspiracy and rebellion, (2) administering poison with intent to
kill, (3) voluntary manslaughter and (4) rape of a white woman. If any
slaves were to be found guilty of consulting or advising the murder of
any one, every such consultation was to constitute an offense and be
punishable by any number of stripes not exceeding one hundred.[296]

As time went on the list of capital crimes was increased as a natural
result of the growth of the slave population and their growing state
of unrest after the incoming of the anti-slavery propaganda. By the
close of the slavery era in Kentucky there were eleven offenses for
which slaves should suffer death: (1) murder, (2) arson, (3) rape of a
white woman, (4) robbery, (5) burglary, (6) conspiracy, (7)
administering poison with intent to kill, (8) manslaughter, (9)
attempting to commit rape on a white woman, (10) shooting at a white
person with intent to kill, and (11) wounding a white person with
intent to kill. It will readily be seen that from a practical
standpoint these eleven offenses can be narrowed down to eight. The
severity of the slave code can be shown by comparison of the capital
crimes for white persons at the same time. These were four in number,
(1) murder, (2) carnal abuse of a female under ten years of age, (3)
wilful burning of the penitentiary and (4) being an acce