against the rights of white men quite as much as from their
interest in the rights of negroes. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio was
led to espouse the cause by observing the attacks upon the
freedom of the press in Cincinnati. Gerrit Smith witnessed the
breaking up of an anti-slavery meeting in Utica, New York, and
thereafter consecrated his time, his talents, and his great
wealth to the cause of liberty. Wendell Phillips saw Garrison in
the hands of a Boston mob, and that experience determined him to
make common cause with the martyr. And the murder of Lovejoy in
1837 made many active abolitionists.

It is difficult to imagine a more inoffensive practice than
giving to negro girls the rudiments of an education. Yet a school
for this purpose, taught by Miss Prudence Crandall in Canterbury,
Connecticut, was broken up by persistent persecution, a special
act of the Legislature being passed for the purpose, forbidding
the teaching of negroes from outside the State without the
consent of the town authorities. Under this act Miss Crandall was
arrested, convicted, and imprisoned.

Having eliminated free discussion from the South, the Southern
States sought to accomplish the same object in the North. In
pursuance of a resolution of the Legislature, the Governor of
Georgia offered a reward of five thousand dollars to any one who
should arrest, bring to trial, and prosecute to conviction under
the laws of Georgia the editor of the Liberator. R. G. Williams,
publishing agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, was
indicted by a grand jury of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and
Governor Gayle of Alabama made a requisition on Governor Marcy of
New York for his extradition. Williams had never been in Alabama.