the Negro's
status which tended to establish that he was thrifty and steadily
improving as a moral and economic force; while the American whites had in
them an object lesson from which they learned much. In his "Autobiography
of a Fugitive Negro," Samuel Ringgold Ward says: "A State or a National
Convention of black men is held. The talent displayed, the order
maintained, the demeanor of the delegates, all impress themselves upon the
community. All agree that to keep a people rooted to the soil who are
rapidly improving, who have already attained considerable influence and
are marshalled by gifted leaders, (men who show themselves qualified for
legislative and judicial positions), and to doom them to a state of
perpetual vassalage is altogether out of the question."

The work of unifying the race along right lines now proceeded with the
holding of state conventions. There was a state Temperance Convention of
the colored men of Connecticut, held at Middletown, 1836, followed by a
call for a New England Convention at Boston in October. Reference to its
proceedings shows a prior convention held at Providence, R. I., in May.
At the Boston convention a ringing appeal was made to the people, for
total abstinence from all intoxicants, and almost immediately thereafter,
local meetings were held for the purpose of putting in practical operation
the principles enunciated. Not only in New England, but in the Middle and
Western States, local conventions were held during the next decade.

The following extracts from a letter from the veteran educator, Peter H.
Clark, shed a flood of light upon this early movement:

J. W. CROMWELL,

Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR SIR:--

The people of Ohio held conventions annually for more than thirty
years. Usually they printed their proceedings in pamphlets.

* * * * *

A peculiarity of the Ohio conventions was that they were meant to
improve the condition of the colored people of that State. The
conventions of those residing in the more eastern States were simply
anti-slavery conventions, and their memorials and protests were aimed
at slavery. The first conventions of the men of Ohio were
self-helpful. By their own sacrifices and with the help of friends,
they purchased lots and erected school houses in a number of towns,
or they organized schools and located them in churches.