_, XXII, p. 98.

[491] See Russell, _Free Negro in Virginia_, p. 127.

[492] Goodell, _Slave Code_, p. 376.

[493] _The Liberator_, December 19, 1845.

[494] Swisshelm, _Half a Century_, p. 129.

GERRIT SMITH'S EFFORT IN BEHALF OF THE NEGROES IN NEW YORK

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the condition of the
free Negroes in the Southern States became more and more critical. The
doctrine of the rights of man, which had swept over the world in the
latter part of the eighteenth century had had its effect on the
colonists and resulted in the manumission of many slaves. These
freedmen taking advantage of their economic and educational
opportunities became an ever increasing menace to the social
institutions that had no foundation except that of slavery. Ambitious,
often aggressive, they were a constant source of dissatisfaction
because of the unhappy comparison of their lot with that of the
slaves. They, moreover, encouraged the slaves to improve their
condition and to escape to the North. This situation was rendered
still more critical for the reason that the South, considering slavery
indispensable to its economic life, was already being lashed into a
frenzy to gain new slave territory and to strengthen the institution
by every possible method of oppression of the blacks. Measures
inimical to the economic progress of freedmen were enacted.[495] Many
who had been manumitted were seized and again reduced to slavery.
Educational opportunities were restricted or denied. Legally they were
without voice and hence could secure no redress when wronged.[496]

This economic poverty, insecurity of personal liberty, and absolutely
negative political status, impelled the freedmen to find better
conditions in the North. The reaction against plantation life and the
glittering attractions of the large city with the prospect of earning
money less arduously no doubt account for their influx into the
industrial centers.[497] These free blacks migrated in great numbers
especially to New York and Philadelphia. The Colonization Society
attempted to solve the problem by effecting the colonization of the
free Negroes somewhere either within or without the United States.
Many friends of the Negroes and even some of the Negroes themselves
thought favorably of the idea and a few small colonies were formed in
the Western States and in Liberia.[498]

Among the anti-slavery men who at first saw no fault in the aims of