Kentucky 1833

[Renfrew]

I am beginning an essay on Rita Dove's "Kentucky 1833". While doing some initial research I found "An Act to amend the law prohibiting the importation of slaves into this State, approved February 2, 1833"(http://www.uky.edu/LCC/HIS/scraps/1833law.html). I think this ended(or was the beginning of the end) of slavery in Kentucky. Is this the case? What is the significance of this 1833 law?

Are you familiar with the poem and the law? Do you see a connection. In the poem the slaves do get a glimpse of freedom. So it would make sense if in 1833 a law made the slaves a little more free. ---

Kentucky, 1833 It is Sunday, day of roughhousing. We are let out in the woods. The young

boys wrestle and butt their heads together like sheep--a circle forms;

claps and shouts fill the air. The women, brown and glossy, gather round

the banjo player, or simply lie in the sun, legs and aprons folded. The

weather's an odd monkey--any other day he's on our backs, his cotton eye

everywhere; today the light sits down like the finest cornmeal, coating

our hands and arms with a dust. God's dust, old woman Acker says. She's

the only one who could read to us from the Bible, before Massa forbade it.

On Sundays, something hangs in the air, a hallelujah, a skitter of brass,

but we can't call it by name and it disappears. Then Massa and his gentlemen friends come to bet on the boys. They guffaw

and shout, taking sides, red-faced on the edge of the boxing ring. There

is more kicking, butting, and scuffling--the winner gets a dram of whiskey

if he can drink it all in one swig without choking. Jason is bucking and prancing about--Massa said his name reminded him of

some sailor, a hero who crossed an ocean, looking for a golden cotton

field. Jason thinks he's been born to great things--a suit with gold

threads, vest and all. Now the winner is sprawled out under a tree and the

sun, that weary tambourine, hesitates at the rim of the sky's green light.

It's a crazy feeling that carries through the night; as if the sky were an

omen we could not understand, the book that, if we could read, would

change our lives.

";  

[Boyden]

Hi Tom,

Kentucky remained a slave State until the end of the Civil War and passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865.  The state did pass a law banning the importation of slaves in 1833.  However, slave trade did continue despute the law, and that law was repealed in 1850.

I'm not familiar with the poem you cite, but Kentucky struggled with the slavery question for years.  There was a significant and vocal anti-slavery faction in Kentucky in the early 19th Century.  Kentucky did not have a lot of large plantations that required slave labor, so it was thought that abolition might succeed there.  The 1833 non-importation law was an attempt to be a step toward gradual emancipation.  However, the necessary support for further steps never developed and Kentucky kept its slaves until the Civil War ended slavery for them.

I hope this helps!

- Mike