1846 KILLING OF WILLIAM HAMILTON BY SLAVE LUCY IN MEADE COUNTY KENTUCKY.

FROM — “Early Times in Meade County, Kentucky,” by George L. Ridenour, pp76 – 78:

Tuesday, November 3, 1846, Lucy and Peter of color, the property of Lewis Hamilton were indicted for murder. William Hamilton, the young master of Lucy, came to his death at the hands of Lucy, being stabbed with a butcher knife. On the day after the indictment was returned Peter was discharged. Thursday, Lucy was brought from the jail and a jury was empaneled. After hearing the evidence Henry P. Byrum, a juror, withdrew and the jury was discharged. John L. Helm was appointed by the court to defend the slaves and the court ordered Lewis Hamilton, the owner to pay the attorney $10.

May 4, 1847, Lucy, who plead not guilt, “put herself upon God and her country” and was found guilty of murder by the jury. On Friday of that term of court upon Lucy’s “suggestion and it appearing to the satisfaction of the court” all further proceedings in the prosecution were suspended. John L. Helm acknowledged a $30 fee which the court had ordered Lewis L. Hamilton to pay. At the August term of the court Further proceeding in this case was postponed “on account of the tender age of the child, and with a view of not endangering its life.”

Hon. A. H. Churchchill was judge and William Alexander was prosecuting attorney. In 1847 Judge Churchill, rather than pass sentence upon Lucy resigned his office and Governor Owsley appointed Samuel Carpenter in his stead. May 1, 1848, the sentence of the court was that “Lucy, a slave, on June first next between the hours of nine o’clock in the morning and three o’clock i the evening that the sheriff take the said prisoner into his custody and take her to a gallows previously erected on some public road leading from the town of Brandenburg not nearer than one-half mile and to farther than three miles from the said town and then and there hang her by the neck of her body until she be dead and the Lord have mercy on her soul. A copy of this order and sentence certified by the clerk of this court shall be sufficient warrant to the Sheriff. The court fixed Lucy’s value at $500 and ordered that “upon this sentence being executed that Lewis Hamilton be allowed $500 from the treasury of the State of Kentucky. Thomas J. Gough, sheriff, and Leonard P. Buckman, acting deputy sheriff, carried out the sentence as directed by the court. Lucy had been kept in the old jail – a log structure – on East Hill. Thomas Mills was the jailer at the time. His wife, “Aunt Peggy,” dressed the negress for the scaffold and assisted her to the ox cart, where she was seated upon the coffin in which she was to be buried. The place of the execution was by the old State road on the farm later owned by William Saunders. (William Saunders was the brother of my great grandmother Mary Walker Saunders Shacklett and was married to Aunt Sophie Saunders – who was a Shacklett!) Lucy carried her small child – born in the jail – in her arms on the slow ride to the place of the hanging. A black jack oak served as a gallows. Several thousand people witnessed the execution. Slaved owners for miles around brought their slaves to show them what would happen if they killed their masters. When the offices with Lucy in custody came to the tree, the child was taken from Lucy’s arms, the noose was adjusted and the rope made fast to a large limb and the oxen driven away. Thus the sentence of the court was carried out. The place near the present town limits on the farm now owned by Henry J. Allen is pointed out as the place where Lucy was hanged. This incident and a slave woman’s death from a severe whipping near the present town of Irvington were made use of by abolitionists throughout the country. In the anti-slavery agitation Lucy’s execution assumed national