their slaves. Non-slaveholders came to get rid of the competition
of slave labor, and free negroes came to avoid reenslavement.
Slaves fled thither on their way to liberty. It was not a matter
of choice; it was an unavoidable condition which compelled the
people of the border States to give continuous attention to the
institution of slavery.

The modern anti-slavery movement had its origin in this great
middle section, and from the same source it derived its chief
support. The great body of active abolitionists were from the
slave States or else derived their inspiration from personal
contact with slavery. As compared with New England abolitionists,
the middlestate folk were less extreme in their views. They had a
keener appreciation of the difficulties involved in emancipation.
They were more tolerant towards the idea of letting the country
at large share the burdens involved in the liberation of the
slaves. Border-state abolitionists naturally favored the policy
of gradual emancipation which had been followed in New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Abolitionists who continued to reside
in the slave States were forced to recognize the fact that
emancipation involved serious questions of race adjustment. From
the border States came the colonization society, a characteristic
institution, as well as compromise of every variety.

The southernmost section, including South Carolina, Georgia, and
the Gulf States, was even more sharply defined in the attitude it
assumed toward the anti-slavery movement. At no time did the
cause of emancipation become formidable in this section. In all
these States there was, of course, a large class of
non-slaveholding whites, who were opposed to slavery and who