nd.

Here we see another consequence of the attempt of slaves to obtain
their freedom, viz., an increased persecution of the free people of
color, a law to prevent their increase, and a desire to banish all of
them from the State. The conspiracy of Gen. Gabriel and his
coadjutors was, therefore, the occasion, if not the cause, of the
formation, in 1817, of the Colonization Society, whose great object
was, by removing all disturbing causes, to make slavery secure,
lucrative, and perpetual. Another noticeable fact, made manifest by
the intended insurrection, is the state of fearful insecurity in
which the residents of a slaveholding community must feel that they
are living. The late assertion of Gov. Wise, that "We, the
Virginians, are in no danger from our slaves or the colored people,"--
or that of Senator Mason, "We can take care of ourselves,"--or that
of Miles, of South Carolina, "We are impregnable,"--betrays the depth
and extent of their fear by the very attempt to conceal it; like
timid boys "ejaculating through white lips and chattering teeth,"
_Who's afraid?_ In the wide-spread panic of 1800, the slaveholders
appear to have been excessively puzzled to ascertain what could have
induced their slaves to engage in such a conspiracy. They, of course,
could not have originated such a plot, and had been, in their
opinion, so well-treated that _they_ could have no motive to wish for
their freedom. It was at first rumored that Gabriel had in his
possession letters written by white men; then, that the conspiracy of
the negroes was "occasioned by the circulation of some artfully
written hand-bills, drawn up by the noted Callender in prison, and
circulated by two French people of color from Guadaloupe, aided by a
United Irish pretended Methodist preacher"; then, "that the
instigators of the diabolical plan wished thereby to insure the
elections of Adams and Pinckney, and that the blacks, as far as they
were capable, reasoned on the Jeffersonian principles of
emancipation." They were, at last, unwillingly compelled to believe
that the whole plot originated with slaves, and was confined to them
exclusively, and that, like all other human beings, deprived by
arbitrary power of all their just rights, they were determined to be
free.

In a letter written in 1800, by Judge St. George Tucker, of
Virginia, and published in Baltimore, he thus speaks:--

"The love of freedom is an inborn sentiment, which the God of
nature