With passing years, while Kentucky maintained slavery, it came to have a social system not like that in the South but one more like the typical structure of the middle nineteenth century West. There were several reasons for this. In the first place, the absence of the policy of primogeniture in time came to distribute the lands over a much larger population. In the second place, while all the land in Kentucky had been granted by the year 1790, the patrician land-holding element was completely submerged by the flood of so-called plebeians who came in soon after Kentucky became a State. In 1790 there were only 61,133 white people in Kentucky, and although all the land had been granted, the white population in the next decade nearly tripled, reaching 179,871 in 1800, and this increase, at a slightly smaller rate, continued down to about 1820. Still further the nature of the soil made it more profitable for the wealthier landed class to let out their holdings to the incoming whites who did their own work and in time came to own the property. "Each year increased this element of the state at the expense of the larger properties."[242]

Population from 1790 to 1860 with Rates of Increase

WhitePer Cent IncreaseFree ColoredPer Cent IncreaseSlavePer Cent IncreaseTotalPer Cent Increase
1790 61,133 114 11,830 73,077
1800179,871194.22 741550.00 40,343241.02 220,955202.36
1810324,237 80.26 1,713131.17 80,561 99.69 406,511 83.98
1820434,644 34.05 2,759 61.06126,732 57.31 564,317[243] 38.82
1830517,787 19.12 4,917 78.21165,213 30.36 687,917 21.09
1840590,253 13.99 7,317 48.81182,258 10.31 779,828 13.36
1850761,413 28.99 10,011 36.81210,981 15.75 982,405 25.98
1860919,484 20.76 10,684 6.72225,483 6.871,155,684[244] 17.64

A study of the growth of the slave and white population of Kentucky from 1790 to 1860 is necessary to an adequate understanding of the slave problem. It will be found advantageous to deal with two sets of figures—one relating to the slave population within the State and the other with the slave increase in Kentucky as compared with the general increase throughout the United States. It would not be of any value to compare the figures for Kentucky with those of any other State, for that would involve the discussion of local factors which are beyond the scope of this investigation.

First of all we shall take the census statistics for the State for all eight of the enumerations which were taken during the slavery era. The figures for the year 1790 were originally taken when Kentucky was a part of the State of Virginia, but they are included, since Kentucky became a State before the census was published. Furthermore they furnish an interesting light upon the growth of the slave population during the first decade of the new commonwealth. The important part of this table is in the increases, on a percentage basis, in the slave and white populations. Another viewpoint of the growth of the slave population may be seen in this little table:

Ratio of Slaves to the Total Population

Per Cent
179016.1
180018.2
181019.18
182022.4
183024.0
184023.3
185021.4
186019.5

Here it will be seen that the proportion of slaves increased down to 1830 and then began to decline. Most authorities are agreed that this was in a large measure due to the enactment of the law of 1833 forbidding the importation of slaves into Kentucky. But before dealing with that question it would be well to have before us the figures for the whole country at the same period.

Free Negro and Slave Population of the United States, 1790 To 1860, with Rates of Increase

Free NegroPer Cent
Increase		SlavesPer Cent
Increase
1790 59,557 697,624
1800 108,435 82.1 893,602 28.1
1810 186,446 71.91,191,362 33.3
1820 233,634 25.31,538,022 29.1
1830 319,599 36.82,009,043 30.6
1840 386,293 20.92,487,355 23.8
1850 434,495 12.53,204,313 28.8
1860 488,070 12.33,953,760 23.4