t in, and, contrary to the utterances of Virginia
statesmen, free speech on the subject of slavery was suppressed in the
slave States. This did not mean that Southern statesmen had lost
the power to perceive the evil effects of slavery or that they were
convinced that their former views were erroneous. It meant simply that
they had failed to agree upon a policy of gradual emancipation, and the
only recourse left seemed to be to follow the example of James G. Birney
and leave the South or to submit in silence to the new order.

CHAPTER V. THE VINDICATION OF LIBERTY

With the changed attitude of the South towards emancipation there was
associated an active hostility to dearly bought human liberty. Freedom
of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, the right of
assembly, trial by jury, the right of petition, free use of the mails,
and numerous other fundamental human rights were assailed. Birney
and other abolitionists who had immediate knowledge of slavery early
perceived that the real question at issue was quite as much the
continued liberty of the white man as it was the liberation of the black
man and that the enslavement of one race involved also the ultimate
essential enslavement of the other.

In 1831 two slave States and six free States still extended to free
negroes the right to vote. During the pro-slavery crusade these
privileges disappeared; and not only so, but free negroes were banished
from certain States, or were not permitted to enter them, or were
allowed to remain only by choosing a white man for a guardian. It was
made a crime to teach negroes, whether slaves or free men, to read and
write. Under various pretexts free negroes were reduced to slavery.
Freedom of worship was denied to negroes, and they were not allowed to
assemble for any purpose except under the strict surveillance of white
men. Negro testimony in a court of law was invalid where the rights of a
white man were involved. The right of a negro to his freedom was decided
by an arbitrary court without a jury, while the disputed right of a
white man to the ownership of a horse was conditioned by the safeguard
of trial by jury.

The maintenance of such policies carries with it of necessity the
suppression of free discussion. When Southern leaders adopted the policy
of defending slavery as a righteous institution, abolitionists in the
South either emigrated to the North or were silenced. In either case
they were deprived of a f