had lost the power to perceive the evil effects of slavery or
that they were convinced that their former views were erroneous.
It meant simply that they had failed to agree upon a policy of
gradual emancipation, and the only recourse left seemed to be to
follow the example of James G. Birney and leave the South or to
submit in silence to the new order.



CHAPTER V. THE VINDICATION OF LIBERTY

With the changed attitude of the South towards emancipation there
was associated an active hostility to dearly bought human
liberty. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of
worship, the right of assembly, trial by jury, the right of
petition, free use of the mails, and numerous other fundamental
human rights were assailed. Birney and other abolitionists who
had immediate knowledge of slavery early perceived that the real
question at issue was quite as much the continued liberty of the
white man as it was the liberation of the black man and that the
enslavement of one race involved also the ultimate essential
enslavement of the other.

In 1831 two slave States and six free States still extended to
free negroes the right to vote. During the pro-slavery crusade
these privileges disappeared; and not only so, but free negroes
were banished from certain States, or were not permitted to enter
them, or were allowed to remain only by choosing a white man for
a guardian. It was made a crime to teach negroes, whether slaves
or free men, to read and write. Under various pretexts free