olored people and slave population; and that the
man of color who would emigrate to Liberia was an enemy to the cause and a
traitor to his brethren. As they had committed no crime worthy of
banishment, they would resist all attempts of the Colonization Society to
banish them from their native land.[31] A New Haven meeting of the Peace
and Benevolent Society of Afric-Americans, led by Henry Berrian and Henry
N. Merriman, expressed interest in seeing Africa become civilized and
religiously instructed, but not by the absurd and invidious plan of the
colonization society to send a "nation of ignorant men to teach a nation of
ignorant men." They would, therefore, resist all attempts for their removal
to the torrid shores of Africa, and would sooner suffer every drop of their
blood to be taken from their veins than submit to such unrighteous
treatment. From the colored people of Lyme, Connecticut, came the sincere
opinion that the Colonization Society was one of the wildest projects ever
patronized by enlightened men. The colored citizens of Middletown, chief
among whom were Joseph Gilbert and Amos G. Beman, inquired "Why should we
leave this land, so dearly bought by the blood, groans and tears of our
fathers? Truly this is our home," said they, "here let us live and here let
us die."[32]

The meeting in Columbia, Pennsylvania, the leaders of which were Stephen
Smith and James Richard, expressed the opinion that African colonization
was a scheme of the Southern planters and wicked device of slaveholders who
were desirous of riveting more firmly, and perpetuating more certainly, the
fetters of slavery by ridding themselves of a population whose presence,
influence and example had a tendency (as they supposed) to produce
discontent among the slaves, and to furnish them with inducements to
rebellion.[33] A few weeks later a meeting was held at Pittsburgh under the
leadership of J. B. Vashon and R. Bryan. The colored people of this city
styled themselves as brethren and countrymen as much entitled to the free
exercise of the elective franchise as any other inhabitants and demanded an
equal share of protection from the Federal Government. They informed the
Colonization Society that should their reason forsake them, then might they
desire to remove. They would apprise them of that change in due season. As
citizens of the United States, they mutually pledged to each other their
lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, not to su