he would immediately leave the
State. Hence it was but natural that a master who intended setting his
slaves free should take them as slaves to a free State and there give
them their freedom, thus satisfying his own conscience and at the same
time removing any future legal trouble that might ensue on account of
his former slaves being found in the State of Kentucky. For this
reason it would seem that a large number of the kind-hearted
slaveholders who freed their slaves did so outside the bounds of
Kentucky and thus that State was deprived of the credit for many
emancipations which took place voluntarily at the hands of her own
slaveholders.

FOOTNOTES:

[285] _Littell's Laws_, 1: 32.

[286] Brown, John Mason, _The Political Beginnings of Kentucky_, p.
229.

[287] _Littell's Laws_, 1: 44.

[288] _Ibid._, 1: 161.

[289] _Littell's Laws_, 2: 113.

[290] _Littell's Laws_, 2: 114.

[291] _Littell's Laws_, 2: 116-117.

[292] _Littell's Laws_, 2: 117-118.

[293] _Littell's Laws_, 3: 403.

[294] _Ibid._, 2: 117-118.

[295] _Niles' Register_, February 2, 1830.

[296] _Littell's Laws_, 4: 223-224.

[297] Stroud, _Laws relating to Slavery_, p. 86. Littell & Swigert, 2:
1066-9; 1060-4.

[298] It would perhaps be well to point out here the general
common-law difference between the treatment of real and personal
estate in a will. The title of the personal property of the deceased
is vested in the executor and he holds it for the payment of debts and
distribution according to the will of the testator. On the other hand
the real estate vests in the devisees or heirs and does not go to the
administrator, unless by statute enactment, which was in part true in
Kentucky, in the case above, where the slaves, although real estate,
were held liable for the debts of their master. _Littell's Laws_, 2:
120.

[299] _T. B. Monroe's Report I._, 23.

[300] Beatty _vs._ Judy, 1 Dana, 101. Plumpton _vs._ Cook, 2 A. K.
Marshall, 450.

[301] Rothert, _History of Muhlenburg County_, p. 343.

[302] Young, B. H., _History of Jessamine County_, p. 89.

[303] Session Laws, 1834, p. 726.

[304] _Ibid._, 1850, p. 51.

[305] _Ibid._, 1856, Vol. 1, pp. 42-44.

[306] _Ibid._, 1858, Vol. 1, pp. 47-48.

[307] Starling, p. 290.

[308] _Littell's Laws_, 1: 32.

[309] _Littell's Laws_, 2: 119.

[310] _Ibid._, 5: 293.

[311] _Ibid._, 5: 435-437.

[312] Barre, W. L., _Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall_, p.
115.