DITION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES DURING THE
WAR.--THE VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.--IMMEDIATE
LEGISLATION AGAINST SLAVERY DEMANDED.--ADVERTISEMENT FROM
"THE INDEPENDENT CHRONICLE."--PETITION OF MASSACHUSETTS
STATES.--AN ACT PREVENTING THE PRACTICE OF HOLDING PERSONS
IN SLAVERY.--ADVERTISEMENT FROM "THE CONTINENTAL
JOURNAL."--A LAW PASSED IN VIRGINIA LIMITING THE RIGHTS OF
SLAVES.--LAW DEMANDING ALL SLAVES WHO SERVED IN THE
ARMY.--NEW YORK PROMISES HER NEGRO SOLDIERS FREEDOM.--A
CONSCIENTIOUS MINORITY IN FAVOR OF THE ABOLITION OF THE
SLAVE TRADE.--SLAVERY FLOURISHES DURING THE ENTIRE
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

The thunder of the guns of the Revolution did not drown the voice of
the auctioneer. The slave-trade went on. A great war for the
emancipation of the colonies from the political bondage into which the
British Parliament fain would precipitate them did not depreciate the
market value of human flesh. Those whose hearts were not enlisted in
the war skulked in the rear, and gloated over the blood-stained
shekels they wrung from the domestic slave-trade. While the precarious
condition of the Southern States during the war made legislation in
support of the institution of slavery impolitic, there were,
nevertheless, many severe laws in force during this entire period. In
the New England and Middle States there was heard an occasional voice
for the oppressed; but it was generally strangled at the earliest
moment of its being by that hell-born child, avarice. On the 21st of
September, 1776, William Gordon of Roxbury, Mass., wrote,--

The Virginians begin their Declaration of Rights with
saying,'that _all _ men are born equally free and
independent, and have certain inherent natural rights, of
which they cannot, by any compact, deprive themselves or
their posterity; among which are the enjoyment of life and
_liberty_.' The Congress declare that they 'hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created _equal_,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
_inalienable rights_, that among these are life, _liberty_
and pursuit of happiness.' The Continent has rung with
affirmations of the like import. If these, Gentlemen, are
our genuine sentiments, and we are not provoking the Deity,
by acting hypocritically to serve a turn, let us apply
earnestly and heartily to the extirpation of s