rest in the paramount question of the day, which, without
doubt, was the slavery question. Gradual emancipation was doing an
excellent work in nearly all the Northern States, as may be seen by
the census of 1820. When the entire slave population was footed up it
showed an increase of 30 per cent. during the previous ten years, but
when examined by States it was found to be on the decrease in all the
Northern or free States, except Illinois. The slave population of
Virginia had increased only 8 per cent.; North Carolina 21 per cent.;
South Carolina 31 per cent.; Tennessee 79 per cent.; Mississippi 92
per cent.; and Louisiana 99 per cent. The slave population by States
was as follows:

CENSUS OF 1820--SLAVE POPULATION.

Alabama 41,879
District of Columbia 6,377
Connecticut 97
Delaware 4,509
Georgia 149,654
Illinois 917
Indiana 190
Kentucky 126,732
Louisiana 69,064
Maryland 107,397
Mississippi 32,814
Missouri 10,222
New Jersey 7,557
New York 10,088
North Carolina 205,017
Pennsylvania 211
Rhode Island 48
South Carolina 258,475
Tennessee 80,107
Virginia 425,153
Arkansas Territory 1,617
---------
Aggregate 1,538,125

The anti-slavery sentiment of the Northern States was growing, but no
organization with a great leader at its head had yet announced its
platform or unfurled its banner in a holy war for the emancipation of
the Bondmen of the Free Republic of North America.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] I have in my possession large numbers of official orders and
letters on the suppression of the slave-trade, but the space
appropriated to this history precludes their publication. There are,
however, some important documents in the appendix to this volume.

CHAPTER II.

NEGRO TROOPS IN THE WAR OF 1812.

EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS SOLDIERS IN THE WAR OF 1812.--THE NEW
YORK LEGISLATURE AUTHORIZES THE ENLISTMENT OF A REGIMENT OF
COLORED SOLDIERS.--GEN. ANDREW JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION TO THE FREE
COLORED INHABITANTS OF LOUISIANA CALLIN