attitude toward these refugees but these British Americans never made the
life of the Negro there so intolerable as was the case in some of the free
States.

It should be observed here that this movement, unlike the exodus of the
Negroes of today, affected an unequal distribution of the enlightened
Negroes.[43] Those who are fleeing from the South today are largely
laborers seeking economic opportunities. The motive at work in the mind of
the antebellum refugee was higher. In 1840 there were more intelligent
blacks in the South than in the North but not so after 1850, despite the
vigorous execution of the Fugitive Slave Law in some parts of the North.
While the free Negro population of the slave States increased only 23,736
from 1850 to 1860, that of the free States increased 29,839. In the South,
only Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina showed a noticeable increase in
the number of free persons of color during the decade immediately
preceding the Civil War. This element of the population had only slightly
increased in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana,
South Carolina and the District of Columbia. The number of free Negroes of
Florida remained constant. Those of Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas
diminished. In the North, of course, the migration had caused the tendency
to be in the other direction. With the exception of Maine, New Hampshire,
Vermont and New York which had about the same free colored population in
1860 as they had in 1850 there was a general increase in the number of
Negroes in the free States. Ohio led in this respect, having had during
this period an increase of 11,394.[44] A glance at the table on the
accompanying page will show in detail the results of this migration.


STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES