14 



NBORO. 



Slavery had been f..s- 

 l*red bsr UM crown ; and every royal governor sent to 

 the RniUh-. \merieaa colonial wma strictly charged to 

 lib ufieial aid to the slave trade. I 'mil the 

 ip Act " and "Tea Tax " the people wcr. 

 to the mother-country; and, then-fore, the colonial 

 agitation found few prominent adherents. From I'M 

 till the war of the revolution some effort* wore put 

 forth for the liberation of the alavea. Jam< 

 JaMcaSwan, and Nathaniel Api>lctn wen- il. 

 lical leaden of the agitation. The imiwmlini; revohi- 

 tioo wa* favorable to the enalarcd blacks, and the free 

 negroe* and mulattoc* lost no opportunity of making 

 ouuvetU to the cause of universal freedom. 

 Although the free negroes of the colonies were 

 setaptetl from militia service, they patriotically rallied 



with the colonist* at the outbreak of the revolution. 

 At the battle of Bunker Hill Peter Salem ami Salem 

 Poor distinguished themselves. When the army was 

 reorganised, in the summer of 177.".. both tin- " Com- 

 mittee of Safety " and the " Council of War at (Jen. 

 Washington's head-quarters were averse to the em- 

 ployment of negroea as soldiers. But public sentiment 

 was not friendly to such conduct on the part of a peo- 

 ple who claimed to be struggling for liberty, and, after 

 a few months of agitation, negro soldiers were ineor- 

 porated into the "Continental Army." They shared 

 the hardships, conflicts, and victories of the Oootaneota] 

 troops. They were engaged in the battles of Bhode 

 Island, Point Bridge, Gennaotown, Saratoga, York- 

 town. Nor were the English indifferent to the value 

 of the negro as a soldier. They offered him freedom 

 and the pay and bounty of a British soldier as an in- 

 ducement to enlist in the royal army. Some few hun- 

 dred accepted the offer, and faithfully served in the 

 English army till it was withdrawn by Sir Guy Carlton, 

 when they sailed away with the retiring troops. The 

 Americans acted with the same fidelity towards the 

 negroes who had supported their .standard in the war. 

 In most of the colonies slaves as well as free negroes 

 had been accepted as soldiers ; and, while the slaves 

 were manumitted, the masters were compensated. 



Notwithstanding the anti-slavery feeling which 

 was almost wholly confined to the Northern colonies 

 before and during the war of the revolution, slavery 

 was not checked to any considerable extent Boon 

 slave* as had served as soldiers wer. tree ; 



but the thousands who had perform.- 1 agricultural 

 labor, while they had been loyal to the American 

 Acre still in bondage. The slave trade I'min the 

 Indies and Africa had practically ceased since 

 the war of the revolution ; but the inter-eolonial 

 u slaves continued. In the New Knj-l.md colo- 

 nies there sprang up a rnovi in. nt among the people' 

 In rid themselves of an institution that had been ea- 

 tablubed by the British government. Slavery was 

 not cxtin t until nearly a generation after tin; Declara- 

 tion <if Indcpcii'l B .t while the Northern colo- 

 nie desired the abolition of the institution of slavery. 

 and 8M.-lit i.i rtfi-d. it. l>y legislation and voluntary 

 maiiumi.v-ion. the Southern colonies eluni; to it as a 



their present an. 1 future prosperity. 



In theConatlUitional OonTentton of 17S7 the slavery 



aueatioti ...vupied B large place in the debates. The 



delegat. In. m the Northern colonies wen- not mure 



-hips than the Southern delegates 



rea. Four .pi. -lions were I.. l>e decided 



ive ; the right to r. 



in labor a : the bans of Southern 



I npnMDtatkm, and the prohil.ition of the 

 lave-trail*. The delegates from the Northern States 



n to th - . i -lion 



but finally yielded to tin- demands ,,f the Nnithern 

 delegate*. Anatt.-mpi t.. aUiliwh the slave-trade by 

 Uw WM defeated l.y the Southern members ; ami the 

 repreamutivni of UM Ni.rtliern cloiii< effected a 

 compromise by which the South was to have twenty 

 of UM foreign slave-trade, and the North the 



exclusive right to enact navigation law.v The South- 

 ern delegates insisted upon having the slaves of their 

 section counted as three fifths of their ratio of repre- 

 sentation in Congress. They won their point . and 

 the negro slave made his appearance in the (Vn>titu- 

 tion as "a person : " and authority was secured t.. re 

 turn any such person who might be a fugitive from 

 "lalmrand sen-ice" to those to whom such labor and 

 I service were due. 



Before the opening of the nineteenth century the 

 (linkers of the Ka.-tcrn and Middle States had shown 

 tneir ormosition to slavery. On Nov. y, 17V. Ben- 

 jamin rranklin, President of the " IVnn-ylvat 

 eiety for Promoting the Abolition .if Slavery, and 

 the Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bond- 

 iiad addressed a memorial to Congress praying 

 that body to enact some law abolishing slavery. In 

 ngress received a petition from Qoaken, asking 

 redress for some free negroes who had been unlaw- 

 fully enslaved. Abolition societies were then forming. 

 Public .sentiment was being created in favor of liberty. 

 and the triumph of the movement seemed to be but a 

 question of time. 



By the "Ordinance of 1787" slavery had been ex- 

 cluded from the "Territory of the North-west ; " and 

 all States formed out of that territory were exi 

 to prohibit slavery bv their constitution. In March, 

 IM.s. the citizens of Missouri petitioned Congr. 

 permission to form a constitution and be admitted 

 t into the Union as a State. The question as to 

 j whether the fundamental principle of the republic 

 ' was liberty or slavery was now for the first time raised. 

 Missouri wanted a constitution establishing and pro- 

 tecting slavery ; and after a struggle of nearly two 

 years the cause of slavery triumphed, and the Missouri 

 compromise was enacted. 



On the part of the South the compromise was a 

 gain by the extension of slavery and the admission of 

 a new slave State. On the part of the North it was 

 a guarantee of a prohibition of slavery in future 

 States. But the Southern statesmen fought the battle 

 for slavery over again when other States asked to be 

 admitted into the Union. Kansas was saved to lil>erty 

 only by the eternal vigilance of patriots, and by the 

 expenditure of much treasure ana blood. 



The anti-slavery movement of the colonial period, 

 and the consistent efforts of the Quakers, had at length 

 aroused the public conscience that had nodded over 

 this question for so long. At the very time the 

 strangle between slavery and freedom was in progress 

 in Missouri, Benjamin Lundy, the chief apostle of 

 universal emancipation, was at St. Louis. Already in 

 is 1.1 he had organized an ant i slavery socieU 1 , "the 

 Union Humane Society," at St. Clairsville. Va. In 

 I s-j- he made the acquaintance of William Lloyd <Iar- 

 rison, who subsequently became associated with him 

 as editor of the (irniti* of /",/.- .->(/ l-'iiKiiK-iimlinn, 



at Baltimore, Md. The' free negroes of the United 

 States began early to write and speak in behalf of 

 their enslaved kinsmen ; and the service they rendered 

 the cause of freedom was Kith creditable to their 

 brain and heart. Many of them served as conductors 

 mi the "Under-Ground liailroad." and made sacri- 

 fices to aid their escaping brothers to Canada, where 

 they would be beyond the reach of United 

 marshals. Duriiiir \'< i of the anti-slavery 



agitation more than ;ii),<ki fugitive slaves found 

 homes in Canada, while at least 'JI.IHKI were estab- 

 lished in their freedom in the Northern St.,tes and 

 territory. 



The . \lKilitionists and negroes of the North were 

 opposed by a violent and moboeratie spirit in all sec- 

 tions of tti iintry. Anti-slavery papers and books, 



when sent South, were taken from the mail-pouches 

 and burned. I'.-r-.ins travelling in the South were fre- 

 quently suspected of ami ^i unents and con- 

 sequently ea-t int.. pri-on. In the North Garrison 

 had been thrown into jail at Baltimore ; Lovejoy's 



