olerated by law, shall be one hundred
dollars, on the delivery to the owner at his residence within this
commonwealth, and seventy-five dollars if lodged in the jail of any
county in this commonwealth, and the owner be notified so as to be
able to reclaim the slave."[322] There were no more advances until a
law of March 3, 1860, increased the reward to one hundred and fifty
dollars if the slave were caught outside the State and brought back to
the home county; one hundred and twenty-five dollars if caught outside
the State and brought back to any county in Kentucky; and twenty
dollars if caught anywhere in the home county.

The trend of these laws, from the viewpoint of the rewards alone,
shows the increasing importance of the fugitive problem to the
slaveholding group. It is noticeable that from the year 1798 until
1835 there was not sufficient pressure upon the State legislature to
increase the reward to the captor of a runaway. It is further evident
from the scarcity of contemporary advertisements that there were
comparatively few Negroes who ventured forth from the neighborhood of
their masters. But with the rise of the anti-slavery movement in the
North and the growth of abolition sentiment as expressed by the
apostles of Negro freedom who had come from across the Ohio, the
slaves tended to run away in ever-increasing numbers. This was soon
followed by a more rigid policy of apprehension upon the part of the
Kentucky legal authorities, apparent in the increasing reward.

Not all cases of fugitives were to be reached by a mere system of
capture and reward. Barely did a slave make his escape into a free
State without the aid of some one in sympathy with him. Hence the need
for legal machinery to punish those who assisted runaways. From a
chronological point of view the laws governing such cases divide
themselves into two parts; in the early days they refer to those who
would help a slave who had already escaped; in the later period they
were directed towards those who induced slaves to leave their home
plantations.

Whichever of the free States he tried to reach it was necessary for
the Negro to cross the Ohio River to get to his haven of refuge. If
the Kentucky authorities could prevent him from crossing the stream on
the northern and western boundary, they could prevent any slave from
making a successful escape. Consequently the legislature as early as
1823 attempted to solve the problem by passing a law forbidd