INDEXES TO LOGAN CO., KY, ORDER BOOKS, 1792-1860
Order books are the minutes of the fiscal court. In the early days, it covers ALL government services, including building public buildings, control of wandering livestock, paying for wolf skins, taking care of the poor, probates of wills, road and bridge construction and maintenance, criminal cases and settling complaints about magistrates "lower court" decisions, distribution of county land to homesteaders, tax collection, guardian and apprenticeships, appointing of all county officials.
INDEXES TO LOGAN CO., KY, ORDER BOOKS, 1792-1860: Searchable on http://userdb.rootsweb.ancestry.com/courtrecords/
See MEMBERSHIP page for a purchase plan for the 2011 LOGAN LINKS which included this index along with many other articles and research helps.
EMANCIPATIONS IN LOGAN CO., KY, COURT RECORDS, 1792-1865
EMANCIPATIONS: Searchable on http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kylcgs/index.html
All emancipations are on this site under the page entitles EMANCIPATIONS where you can SCROLL through the whole database.
Explanation of the information on emancipations abstracted from the Logan County, KY, Order Books and Deed Books is listed below.
Logan County, KY, Emancipations, 1792-1865
This database compiles all references to emancipation orders, both in Order and Deed Books between the formation of Logan County in September 1792 and end of the Civil War. Book A (or 11) and Book B (or 12) are missing and only the indexes remain. These books cover November 1846 through December 1859. Dates are estimated by comparing death dates of some individuals and their cemetery records. Records do list some emancipated slaves, however no descriptions and few owners are listed. Some entries, such as "F. W. Lewis to Jackson," could be emancipation papers, apprentice or indenture contracts, or merely a contract between two individuals. They are copied here as written and as carefully as possible to prevent researchers from missing their ancestor. In this example, Jackson is listed as a surname but also listed as Negro - Jackson in case it was an emancipation.
In Logan County, the emancipations in the Deed Books are indexed under "Slaves" in the master index, 1792-1938. These are recorded in the database, some as duplications to the order book entries and some separate entries. This index also lists the immigrants and the slaves brought into Kentucky for personal use but these are not included in the database for it refers only to those individuals emancipated.
Slavery and emancipation from this servitude was always regulated by Kentucky constitutions and statutes. How carefully the rules were followed is only a guess so this list is as accurate as the records allow.
Virginia, when giving permission for Kentucky to be cut off to form the fifteenth state of the union, stipulated that slavery as an established institution would be maintained. Following Virginia codes, the first constitution in 1792 set the basis for slavery in Kentucky.
Among other points, Article IX stipulated
1. The legislature could pass no law for the emancipation of slaves without the consent of owners or without paying their owners. This explains the early capital felony cases where a slave was convicted, executed and then the owner paid for his loss.
2. Laws could be passed to regulate emancipation so that the slave did not become a burden on the county where he resided nor could creditors be foiled by sudden freeing of the slave.
3. While immigrants could bring their slaves into the state, no slaves were to be brought here with the intent of merchandising purposes nor could slaves from a foreign country be brought to Kentucky. In this case, the word "intent" allowed for slave trade for anyone could "intend" to use the slave for personal use and then decide later to sell said slave or slaves.
In December of 1794, the emancipation law clarified a few points. If one desired to emancipate his slaves by a will, the document had to be in writing, stamped with a seal, attested, and proved in open court by two witnesses. The court could demand bond and security from the emancipator or the executor of his estate so freed Negroes would not be a burden on the county finances. A certificate, made of parchment and bearing the county seal, was to be given to the freedman.
Kentucky operated under the guidelines developed in Virginia until 1798 when it drew up its own slave code. These forty-three articles dealt more with the treatment of slaves, solving problems inherent with slavery, punishments for various crimes committed by slaves or owners and did little to change the emancipation practices.
In 1823 a slight refinement of the emancipation law was passed. It required a description of the freed slave on the certificate and specified that only one certificate was to be issued unless a person could prove the first one was lost. Severe penalties were to be incurred if a freedman gave his certificate to a slave, thus allowing the other slave to have freedom.
To avoid some of the legal and financial obligations, some Kentucky slave owners took their slaves to Ohio and freed them over the state line. Many of these may have moved to a colony of freed slaves in Green County, OH. Only one record was found in Logan County Deed Book T when Maria Caldwell was freed at Cincinnati, OH. Since it would not have been required to be noted in order or deed books, others may have been freed in this manner. Some of the Logan County records state the freed slave has to move from Kentucky, that he may go anywhere in the world except slave states, and some specify a move to
One odd segment of Logan County history occurred between 1 January 1862 and 29 January 1862. In late 1861 and early 1862, Logan County was occupied by forces of the Confederate Army. Some freedmen were forced to work for this army and there were reports of freedmen being carried south and sold into slavery. Fearing for their freedom and that of their children, twenty freedmen voluntarily chose new masters, agreeing to be their slaves for life. They also agreed to the binding of their children, the boys to age 21, the girls to age 18, in apprenticeship programs to the new masters. By August when the Union forces had driven out the Confederates, the freedmen realized they had been unduly influenced by the specific individuals who benefited from their new enslavement. Of the twenty who were enslaved by this voluntary court order, eleven are not in the records as plaintiffs in suits asking for return of their freedom. Equity court records record the other nine suing for and winning back their freedom. Of the 44 free Negro children bound to the various participants, only seventeen, those of the three families of Elijah and Elizabeth Broadnax, Bathia Cole, and Eliza Jane Bibb, show up in the later emancipation law suits.
