LED "THE
ATTUCKS GUARDS."--EMIGRATION OF NEGROES TO LIBERIA.--THE COLORED
PEOPLE LIVE DOWN MUCH PREJUDICE.

In 1850 there were 238,187 free Negroes in the slave States. Their
freedom was merely nominal. They were despised beneath the slaves, and
were watched with suspicious eyes, and disliked by their brethren in
bondage.

In 1850 there were 196,016 free Negroes in the Northern States. Their
increase came from [chiefly] two sources, viz.: births and emancipated
persons from the South. Fugitive slaves generally went to Canada, for
in addition to being in danger of arrest under the fugitive-slave law,
none of the State governments in the North sympathized with escaped
Negroes. The Negroes in the free States were denied the rights of
citizenship, and were left to the most destroying ignorance. In 1780,
some free Negroes, of the town of Dartmouth, petitioned the General
Court of Massachusetts for relief from taxation, because they were
denied the privileges and duties of citizenship. The petition set
forth the hardships free Negroes were obliged to endure, even in
Massachusetts, and was in itself a proof of the fitness of the
petitioners for the duties of citizenship.

"_To the Honorable Council and House of Representatives, in
General Court Assembled, for the State of Massachusetts Bay, in
New England_:

"The petition of several poor negroes and mulattoes, who are
inhabitants of the town of Dartmouth, humbly showeth:

"That we being chiefly of the African extract, and by reason of
long bondage and hard slavery, we have been deprived of enjoying
the profits of our labor or the advantage of inheriting estates
from our parents, as our neighbors the white people do, having
some of us not long enjoyed our own freedom; yet of late,
contrary to the invariable custom and practice of the country, we
have been, and now are, taxed both in our polls and that small
pittance of estate which, through much hard labor and industry,
we have got together to sustain ourselves and families withall.
We apprehend it, therefore, to be hard usage, and will doubtless
(if continued) reduce us to a state of beggary, whereby we shall
become a burthen to others, if not timely prevented by the
interposition of your justice and power.

"Your petitioners further show, that we apprehend ourselves to be
aggrieved, in that, while we are not