operty; and go horrid and fearful had been the scene, that our people
chose to leave, rather than remain under such untoward circumstances. They
lived in constant fear of the mob which had so abused and terrified them.
Families seated at the fireside started at every breath of wind, and
trembled at the sound of every approaching footstep. The father left his
family in fear, lest on his return from his daily labor, he should find
his wife and children butchered, and his house left desolate.

Meetings were held to devise plans and means for leaving the place where
they had been so cruelly treated. But where should they go? And why
should they be compelled to leave the State of Ohio? The fact is, that the
African race there, as in all parts of this nominally free Republic, was
looked down upon by the white population as being little above the brute
creation; or, as belonging to some separate class of degraded beings, too
deficient in intellect to provide for their own wants, and must therefore
depend on the superior ability of their oppressors, to take care of them.
Indeed, both the time and talents of eminent men have been wasted in
unsuccessful research for the line of demarcation, between the African and
the highest order of animals,--such for instance as the monkey or the
ourang-outang. Some even, have advanced the absurd idea, that wicked Cain
transmitted to them the "mark" which the Almighty set upon him for the
murder of his brother; and that he, (who then must have survived the
deluge), is the progenitor of that despised and inferior race--the negro
slave of the United States of America!

If it be true, that the natural inferiority of the black man, connects him
so closely with the animal creation, it looks passing strange to me that
he should be made responsible for the violation of laws which he has been
declared too imbecile to aid in framing or of comprehending. Nor is it
less strange to see him enslaved and compelled by his labor to maintain
both his master and himself, after having declared him incapable of doing
either. Why not let him go then? Why hold with an unyielding grasp, so
miserable and useless a piece of property? Is it benevolence that binds
him with his master's chain? Judge ye. Stranger still is the fact of
attaching such vast influence to his presence and so much concern
regarding his movements, when in a state of freedom, if indeed, he is of
so little worth and consequence, and so nearly relate