for 1850. He set a perfectly arbitrary
valuation of $400 on each slave, but, if one takes into account the
infants and the aged unable to work, his general appraisement of the
slave group is fair enough for the time and for a basis of comparison.
It will be seen at a glance that after taking out the value of the
slaves in all the States Kentucky was the richest southern
commonwealth.

From the three preceding tables it is apparent that while the Kentucky
slaveholders represented about 28 per cent of the white population of
the State, on the average they held less slaves than in the other
Southern States. Slave property in Kentucky was a much smaller part of
the wealth of the commonwealth than in the States to the south. The
relatively large number of holders is to be explained by the type of
slavery which existed in the State. Many persons held a few servants
in bondage and those who held many slaves were very few in number.

The question of the sale of slaves from Kentucky into the southern
market presents a much more formidable problem. The chief charge that
the anti-slavery people made against Kentucky was that the State
regularly bred and reared slaves for the market in the lower South.
What was the attitude of the Kentucky slaveholder and the people in
general on the question of the domestic slave trade? There is no doubt
that in the later years of slavery there were sold in the State many
slaves who ultimately found their way into the southern market
notwithstanding the contempt of the average Kentucky slaveholder for
the slave trade. This trend of opinion will be seen as we proceed. If
the sentiment was decidedly against such human commerce how did so
many slaves become victims of the slave trader?

There were five general causes which led to the sale of slaves in
Kentucky: (1) When they became so unruly that the master was forced to
sell; (2) when their sale was necessary to settle an estate; (3) when
the master was reduced to the need of the money value in preference to
the labor; (4) when captured runaways were unclaimed after one year;
and (5) when the profit alone was desired by unscrupulous masters.
Many other reasons have been given, but a careful investigation of
all available material confines practically every known case of sale
to one of the above classifications. Mrs. Stowe in her _Key to Uncle
Tom's Cabin_[249] maintained that the prevalence of the slave trade in
Kentucky was due to the impoverish