age of the Afro-American, and that the
separation of the two races was the only solution. The participants at
the Bethel meeting contended that this propaganda tended to justify
racial discrimination.

The claim was also made that the removal of freedmen from America would
only serve to make the slave system more secure, and they pledged
themselves never to abandon their slave brothers. Besides, while they
were African by heritage, they had been born in America, and it was now
their home. Most of the fifteen thousand who did return to Africa were
slaves who had been freed for this purpose, and the project was
acknowledged to be a failure. The Society's own propaganda contributed
to the alienation of many freedmen. One of its own leaders admitted that
lacks could read and hear and, when they were spoken of as a nuisance to
be banished, they reacted negatively like men.

Widespread racial prejudice, besides creating racial discrimination,
resulted in oppressive legislation. In 1810 Congress excluded
Afro-Americans from carrying the mail. In 1820 it authorized the
District of Columbia to elect white city officials, and it consistently
admitted new states to the Union whose constitutions severely limited the
rights of freedmen. The office of the Attorney General usually took the
position that the Constitution did not grant citizenship to Negroes, and
Congress itself had limited naturalization to white aliens in 1790. This
point of view was later justified by the Dred Scott decision. With only
a few exceptions, the Secretary of State refused to grant passports to
those wishing to travel abroad, although it did provide a letter of
identification stating that the carrier was a resident of the United
States. Finally, Massachusetts granted its own passports to its colored
citizens, complaining that they had been virtually denationalized.

Also, many states in the Northwest passed laws prohibiting or limiting
the migration of Afro-Americans into their territory. An Illinois law
said that anyone who entered the state illegally could be whipped and
sold at auction. Many states denied blacks the ballot, prohibited their
serving on a jury and legally segregated transportation, restaurants,
hotels, theaters, churches, and even cemeteries. Most Northern states
did not allow them to testify in court against whites. This meant that,
if a white man beat a black, the black had no legal protection unless
another white was w