ency, in declaring that all men were
equal, and then keeping 3,000,000 colored people in enforced subjection.
In reply the Bible was freely quoted in defense of slavery, and the
fight was taken up by ministers of religion with much zeal. It was not,
by any means, a sectional question at that time. While the slaves were
owned by Southern planters and landed proprietors, they were purchased
and kept on borrowed capital, and many of the men in the North, who were
supposed to sympathize with the Abolitionists, were as much interested
in the perpetuation of slavery as those who actually owned the slaves
themselves.

In the year 1831, a negro named Turner, supported by six desperate and
misguided fellow countrymen, started out on what they regarded as a
practical crusade against slavery. Turner professed to have seen visions
such as inspired Joan of Arc, and he proceeded to fulfill what he
regarded as his divine mission, in a very fanatical manner. First, the
white man who owned Turner was murdered, and then the band proceeded to
kill off all white men in sight or within convenient reach. Within two
days nearly fifty white men were destroyed by those avenging angels, as
they were called, and then the insurrection or crusade was terminated by
the organizing of a handful of white men who did not propose to be
sacrificed as had been their fellows.

Turner's bravery was great when there was no resistance, but he
recognized that discretion was the better part of valor the moment
organized resistance was offered. Taking to the woods, he left his
followers to shift for themselves. For more than a week he lived on what
he could find in the wheat fields, and then, coming in contact with an
armed white man, he speedily surrendered. A week later he was hanged,
and seventeen other colored men suffered a like penalty for connection
with the conspiracy. The murderous outbreak had other dire results for
the negro, and caused many innocent men to be suspected and punished.

A year later, Garrison started the New England Anti-Slavery Society,
which was followed by many similar organizations. So intense did the
feeling become that President Jackson thought it advisable to recommend
legislation excluding Abolition literature from the mails. The measure
was finally defeated, but in the Southern States, particularly, a great
deal of mail was searched and even condemned. Rewards were offered in
some of the slave-holding States for the apprehensi