ellent of the earth.
They have public and private libraries. They have their temperance
societies, their debating societies, their moral societies, their
literary societies, their benevolent societies, their saving societies,
and a multitude of kindred associations. They have their infant schools,
their primary and high schools, their sabbath schools, and their Bible
classes. They contribute to the support of foreign and domestic missions
to Bible and tract societies, etc. In the city of Philadelphia alone
they have more than fifty associations for moral and intellectual
improvement. In fact, they are rising up, even with mountains of
prejudice piled upon them, with more than Titanic strength, and
trampling beneath their feet the slanders of their enemies. A spirit of
virtuous emulation is pervading their ranks, from the young child to the
gray head. Among them is taken a large number of daily and weekly
newspapers, and of literary and scientific periodicals, from the popular
monthlies up to the grave and erudite _North American_ and _American
Quarterly Reviews_. I have at this moment, to my own paper, the
_Liberator_, one thousand subscribers among this people; and, from an
occupancy of the editorial chair for more than seven years, I can
testify that they are more punctual in their payments than any five
hundred white subscribers whose names I ever placed indiscriminately in
my subscription book."

There was an earnest desire on the part of the free people of color to
raise the level of their class in the Union. At a convention held by
them in Philadelphia, in 1831, they resolved upon a measure calculated
to make up, to some extent, the deprivations which their children were
suffering by being excluded from the higher schools of learning in the
land. So they determined to establish a college on the manual-labor
system for the education of colored youth. They appealed for aid to
their benevolent friends, and fixed upon New Haven as the place to build
their institution. Arthur Tappan, with customary beneficence, "purchased
several acres of land, in the southerly part of the city, and made
arrangements for the erection of a suitable building, and furnishing it
with needful supplies, in a way to do honor to the city and country."

The school, however, was never established owing to the violent
hostility of the citizens, who with the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common
Council resolved in public meeting to "_resist_ the establish