ing
masters of vessels and others from employing and removing Negroes out
of the State.[323] This act prevented runaways from securing work on a
steamboat with the specific purpose of leaving once they were on free
soil. But as usual this enactment was not effective, because there was
a loop-hole in it. The State assembly in 1831, therefore, provided
that no ferryman on the Ohio River should transport slaves across from
Kentucky. No other person, not owning or keeping a ferry, was to be
permitted to set slaves over, or to loan them boats or watercraft.
Slaves could only cross the river when they had the written consent of
their masters. Each and every owner of a ferry was required to give
bond in the sum of $3,000 to carry out the spirit of the law; and for
every violation he was subject to a fine of $200.[324]

Not content with their previous efforts the general assembly of 1838
went still further and prohibited slaves from going as passengers on
mail stages or coaches anywhere within the State, except upon the
written request of their owners, or in the master's company. The
liability for the enforcement of the law rested upon the stage
proprietors, who were to be fined $100 for each slave illegally
transported.[325]

No stringent laws were made against the enticement of slaves to run
away until 1830 when the abolitionists first began to appear. Until
that time there seems to have been no need for any legal enactment
regarding the question. The only trouble previously had been with the
whites and free Negroes who aided a slave already on his way to the
North. It was in response to the popular demand that on January 28,
1830, the State legislature provided severe penalties for any person
found guilty of (1) enticing a slave to leave his owner, (2)
furnishing a forged paper of freedom, (3) assisting a slave to escape
out of the State, (4) enticing a slave to run away, or (5) concealing
a runaway slave. Should a person be suspected of any one of these
offenses and not be found guilty, he was to give security for his good
behavior to avoid all accusation in the future.[326]

The most interesting legal case based on this law was that of Delia
Webster, a young lady from Vermont, who was tried in the Fayette
Circuit Court in December, 1844, for the enticement of a Negro slave
boy from Lexington. The details of the trial show that the court was
just and fair in spite of the fact that both Miss Webster and her
copartner, Ca