tionary passion productive of the daring
uprisings which made the chances for the enlightenment of colored
people poorer than they had ever been in the history of this country.

The more alarming insurrections of the first quarter of the nineteenth
century were the immediate cause of the most reactionary measures.
It was easily observed that these movements were due to the mental
improvement of the colored people during the struggle for the rights
of man. Not only had Negroes heard from the lips of their masters
warm words of praise for the leaders of the French Revolution but had
developed sufficient intelligence themselves to read the story of the
heroes of the world, who were then emboldened to refresh the tree
of liberty "with the blood of patriots and tyrants."[1] The
insurrectionary passion among the colored people was kindled, too,
around Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and New Orleans by certain
Negroes who to escape the horrors of the political upheaval in Santo
Domingo,[2] immigrated into this country in 1793. The education of the
colored race had paved the way for the dissemination of their ideas of
liberty and equality. Enlightened bondmen persistently made trouble
for the white people in these vicinities. Negroes who could not read,
learned from others the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture, whose example
colored men were then ambitious to emulate.

[Footnote 1: Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol. iv., p. 467.]

[Footnote 2: Drewery, _Insurrections in Virginia_, p. 121.]

The insurrection of Gabriel in Virginia and that of South Carolina in
the year 1800 are cases in evidence. Unwilling to concede that slaves
could have so well planned such a daring attack, the press of the
time insisted that two Frenchmen were the promoters of the affair in
Virginia.[1] James Monroe said there was no evidence that any white
man was connected with it.[2] It was believed that the general
tendency of the Negroes toward an uprising had resulted from French
ideas which had come to the slaves through intelligent colored men.[3]
Observing that many Negroes were sufficiently enlightened to see
things as other men, the editor of the _Aurora_ asserted that in
negotiating with the "Black Republic" the United States and Great
Britain had set the seal of approval upon servile insurrection.[4]
Others referred to inflammatory handbills which Negroes extensively
read.[5] Discussing the Gabriel plot in 1800, Judge St. George Tucker
said