Note 45 — Chapter XXII · BODILY INJURIES

Harris and Johnson, Reports of Cases argued and determined in the General Court and Court of Appeals of the State of Maryland, i. 4. Of all the Slave States, so far as I know, Kentucky was the only one where the owner of a slave might bring an action of trespass against anyone who whipped, stroke, or otherwise abused the slave without the owner’s consent, notwithstanding the slave was not so injured that the master lost his services thereby (Morehead and Brown, Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky, ii. 1481). In Tennessee, according to an act of 1813, a person was punished if he “wantonly and without sufficient cause” beat or abused the slave of another (Caruthers and Nicholson, Compilation of the Statutes of Tennessee, p. 678).