Slave Revolt Scare (Lexington, KY)

The fear of a slave revolt was such a terrifying thought that a number of slaves were arrested and jailed in Lexington, KY in 1810; there was a supposed slave revolt plot. Rumors of slave uprisings were constantly circulated. In response, in 1811 the Kentucky Legislature made insurrection or a conspiracy to start an insurrection by [free] Negroes or slaves punishable by death.

For more see The Antislavery Movement in Kentucky, by L. H. Harrison; p. 59 of Acts passed at the...Session of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, First Session, December 1810, by Commonwealth of Kentucky [available full-text at Google Books]; and J. E. K. Walker, "The Legal status of free Blacks in early Kentucky, 1792-1825," Filson Club History Quarterly, vol. 57, issue 4 (1983), pp. 382-395.