hern cities almost until the Civil War. The Second Annual Convention
showed an attitude of militant opposition by emphatically protesting
against any appropriation by Congress in behalf of the movement. The Third
Annual Convention, which met in Philadelphia in 1833, probably represented
the high water mark of their antagonism to this enterprise. There were 59
representatives of the free people of color from eight different States,
namely, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, New
York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The leaders of the movement were
James Forten, Robert Douglas, Joseph Cassey, Robert Purvis, and James
McCrummell. At an early stage in the proceedings of this Convention there
prevailed a motion that "a committee consisting of one delegate from each
of the States represented in the Convention, be appointed to draft
resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the people of color in regard
to the subject of colonization." Although these men were opposed to
emigration to Africa, they favored a sort of colonization in some part of
America, for the relief of such persons as might leave the United States
on account of oppressive laws like those of Ohio.[42] The colored people
would in this case give such refugees all aid in their power.

After having divested themselves of "all unreasonable prejudice," and
reviewed the whole ground of their opposition to the American Colonization
Society, with all the candor of which they were capable, they still
declared to the world that they were unable to arrive at any other
conclusion than that the life-giving principles of the Society were totally
repugnant to the spirit of true benevolence; that the doctrines which the
Society inculcated were hostile to those of their holy religion and in
direct violation of the golden rule, and that "the inevitable tendency of
this doctrine was to strengthen the cruel prejudice of their opponents, to
still the heart of sympathy to the appeals of suffering Negroes, and retard
their advancement in morals, literature and science, in short, to
extinguish the last glimmer of hope, and throw an impenetrable gloom over
their fears and most reasonable prospects." All plans for actual
colonization, therefore, were rejected.[43]

The movement thereafter continued to receive the attention of the people in
the various parts of the country, being generally denounced. The Negroes of
Ohio were prominent among those who opposed it.[