We have no other; this, this is our home.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Anti-Slavery Picknick_, 105-107.]

To this sentiment formal expression was given in the measures adopted at
various Negro meetings in the North. In 1817 the greatest excitement
was occasioned by a report that through the efforts of the newly-formed
Colonization Society all free Negroes were forcibly to be deported from
the country. Resolutions of protest were adopted, and these were widely
circulated.[1] Of special importance was the meeting in Philadelphia in
January, presided over by James Forten. Of this the full report is as
follows:

[Footnote 1: They are fully recorded in _Garrison's Thoughts on African
Colonization_.]

At a numerous meeting of the people of color, convened at Bethel Church,
to take into consideration the propriety of remonstrating against the
contemplated measure that is to exile us from the land of our nativity,
James Forten was called to the chair, and Russell Parrott appointed
secretary. The intent of the meeting having been stated by the chairman,
the following resolutions were adopted without one dissenting voice:

WHEREAS, Our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful
cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel
ourselves entitled to participate in the blessings of her luxuriant
soil, which their blood and sweat manured; and that any measure or
system of measures, having a tendency to banish us from her bosom,
would not only be cruel, but in direct violation of those principles
which have been the boast of this republic,