ported having liberated eighty since
1788; and the Alexandria (Va.) Society reported having made
twenty-six complaints under the law against the importation of
slaves. By votes of previous conventions, the Abolition Societies
were required to sustain schools for the education of Africans.
The minutes for 1797 contain interesting reports from the several
societies of their success in this department of benevolence.

Before the year 1782, it was illegal in Virginia for a master to
liberate his slaves without sending them out of the State. The
Assembly of Virginia then passed an act permitting the
manumission of slaves. Judge Tucker of that State, in his
"Dissertation on Slavery," estimated that, from 1782 to 1791, ten
thousand slaves were liberated in Virginia by their masters.

Of the anti-slavery literature of this period, which has not
already been noticed, there is in the New York Historical
Society's library, "An Oration spoken before the Connecticut
Society for the Promotion of Freedom, and the Relief of Persons
unlawfully held in Bondage, convened at Hartford the 8th of May,
1794. By Theodore Dwight.[35] Hartford, 1794." 8vo, 24 pp. Also,
a "Discourse delivered April 12, 1797, at the Request of the New
York Society for the Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and
protecting such of them as have been or may be liberated. By
Samuel Miller, A. M. New York, 1787." 8vo, 36 pp.

In the Boston Athenaeum library are the following tracts:

"A Dissuasion to Great Britain and the Colonies from the Slave
Trade to Africa. By James Swan. Revised and abridged. Boston,
1773." 8vo, 40 pp. The original edition was printed in 1772.

"A Forensic Dispute on the Legality of Enslaving the Africans,
held at a Public Commencement in Cambridge, N. E., July 21, 1773,
by the Candidates for the Bachelors' Degrees. Boston, 1773." 8vo,
48 pp.

"A Short Account of that Part of Africa inhabited by the Negroes.
[By Anthony Benezet.] Philadelphia, 1772." 8vo, 80 pp.

"An Address to the British Settlements in America upon
Slaveholding. Second edition. To which are added Observations on
a Pamphlet entitled 'Slavery not forbidden by Scripture; or, a
Defence of the West Indian Planters.' By a Pennsylvanian [Dr.
Benjamin Rush]. Philadelphia, 1773." 8vo, pp. 28 + 54.