lower
South.

In the chapter on the legal status of slavery special emphasis has
been placed not only upon the legal position of the institution but
upon the general evolution of the rights of the Negro in servitude.
This section is vitally connected with the anti-slavery movement after
about the year 1835. The problem of the fugitive slave and the general
rights of emancipation and of the freed Negro have been approached
purely from the legal standpoint.

The chapter on the social status of the slave considers the conditions
of slave life that were more or less peculiar to Kentucky. There has
often been made the statement, that in Kentucky Negro servitude was
generally on a higher plane than in the States to the south and the
treatment of slaves was much more humane. Some light has been thrown
on these questions.

As a supplement to the discussion of the legal and social status a
general summary of public opinion regarding emancipation and
colonization has been added. Although for the most part consisting of
previously published material this section has been treated from the
viewpoint of the existing institution and not from the anti-slavery
side which occasioned most of the original publication.

This study has been made from a consideration of the contemporary
evidence as found in newspapers, statements of slaves, and general
evidence of travelers and citizens of Kentucky during the period
before the Civil War. The material for the study of this field is not
only scattered throughout the country but for the most part it is very
meager compared with the records of States like Virginia and Missouri.
All the documents, papers, manuscripts and works known to be of value,
however, have been consulted. The most valuable records for this
treatise are to be found in the Durrett Collection at the University
of Chicago, the extensive files of early Kentucky papers in the
Library of the American Antiquarian Society, and the documents in the
Kentucky State Library at Frankfort.

To Mr. Clarence S. Brigham, of the American Antiquarian Society, Mr.
Edward A. Henry, of the University of Chicago Library, and Mr. Frank
Kavanaugh, of the Kentucky State Library, I am indebted for invaluable
assistance rendered in securing material for this work. The treatment
of the legal status of slavery would have been very meager, were it
not for the valuable aid given by Dr. George E. Wire, of the Worcester
County (Massachusetts) Law Libra