sting provisions of the Virginia code were not readily adapted to
the rapidly growing State, and then too there was a decided tendency
to ameliorate the condition of the slave as much as possible. In
Kentucky they were not then, at least, confronted with such a large
mass of slaves that they could not meet problems in a much easier
manner than in the Old Dominion.

In the beginning, it was naturally found necessary to place some
restrictions on the slave and his movements. He was not allowed to
leave his master's plantation without written permission and if he did
go away, any person could apprehend the offender and take him before a
justice of the peace, who was empowered to order the infliction of
stripes at his discretion. Furthermore, he was not to wander off to
any other plantation without the written permission of his owner, with
the provision in this instance that he was not to be taken before a
justice of the peace, but before his owner, who was entitled to
inflict ten lashes upon the offender. Should the slave be found
carrying any powder, shot, a gun, club, or any weapon he could be
apprehended by any free person and taken before a justice and a much
severer penalty exacted in the form of thirty-nine lashes, "well laid
on, on the bare back."[289] It is clear that this law was drawn up to
keep the slave from becoming a public menace and not as a sign of
absolute restriction on the servant, for it was further provided in
Section 6 that in case the slave lived in a frontier community he
could go to the local justice of the peace and secure a permit to keep
and use guns, powder, shot and other weapons for either offensive or
defensive purposes. This permission was to be indorsed by any free
Negro, mulatto or Indian and did not necessarily involve the approval
of the owner of the slave.

It was declared unlawful for slaves to engage in riots, unlawful
assemblies, in trespasses or in seditious speech and, if so accused,
they were to be taken before the local justice who was to punish them
at his discretion. But the Negroes themselves were not to be
considered as the only guilty ones. In order to prevent any such
disorderly meetings no owner of slaves was to be allowed to permit any
slave not belonging to him to remain on his plantation for more than
four hours at any one time under a nominal penalty to such owner of
$2; but, if he allowed more than five such slaves to assemble on his
property, he was to be fined m