ubject declined. For twenty years previous
to the founding of Garrison's Liberator in 1831, organized abolition
movements had been almost unknown in New England. In various ways
the people were isolated, separated from contact with slavery. Their
knowledge of this subject of discussion was academic, theoretical,
acquired at second-hand.

In New York and New Jersey slaves were much more numerous than in New
England. There were still slaves in considerable numbers until about
1825. The people had a knowledge of the institution from experience and
observation, and there was no break in the continuity of their organized
abolition societies. Chief among the objects of these societies was the
effort to prevent kidnapping and to guard the rights of free negroes.
For both of these purposes there was a continuous call for activity.
Pennsylvania also had freedmen of her own whose rights called for
guardianship, as well as many freedmen from farther south who had come
into the State.

The movement of protest and protection did not stop at Mason and Dixon's
Line, but extended far into the South. In both North Carolina and
Tennessee an active protest against slavery was at all times maintained.
In this great middle section of the country, between New England and
South Carolina, there was no cessation in the conflict between free
and slave labor. Some of these States became free while others remained
slave; but between the people of the two sections there was continuous
communication. Slaveholders came into free States to liberate their
slaves. Non-slaveholders came to get rid of the competition of slave
labor, and free negroes came to avoid reenslavement. Slaves fled thither
on their way to liberty. It was not a matter of choice; it was an
unavoidable condition which compelled the people of the border States to
give continuous attention to the institution of slavery.

The modern anti-slavery movement had its origin in this great middle
section, and from the same source it derived its chief support. The
great body of active abolitionists were from the slave States or
else derived their inspiration from personal contact with slavery. As
compared with New England abolitionists, the middlestate folk were
less extreme in their views. They had a keener appreciation of the
difficulties involved in emancipation. They were more tolerant towards
the idea of letting the country at large share the burdens involved
in the liberation of the sl