menacing liberal communities with the trouble of caring for an
undesirable class. The friends of the Negroes, however, received more
encouragement during the two decades immediately preceding the Civil
War. There was a change in the attitude of northern cities toward
the uplift of the colored refugees. Catholics, Protestants, and
abolitionists often united their means to make provision for the
education of accessible Negroes, although these friends of the
oppressed could not always agree on other important schemes. Even the
colonizationists, the object of attack from the ardent antislavery
element, considerably aided the cause. They educated for work in
Liberia a number of youths, who, given the opportunity to attend
good schools, demonstrated the capacity of the colored people. More
important factors than the colonizationists were the free people of
color. Brought into the rapidly growing urban communities, these
Negroes began to accumulate sufficient wealth to provide permanent
schools of their own. Many of these were later assimilated by
the systems of northern cities when their separate schools were
disestablished.

CHAPTER VII

THE REACTION

Encouraging as had been the movement to enlighten the Negroes, there
had always been at work certain reactionary forces which impeded the
intellectual progress of the colored people. The effort to enlighten
them that they might be emancipated to enjoy the political rights
given white men, failed to meet with success in those sections where
slaves were found in large numbers. Feeling that the body politic, as
conceived by Locke and Montesquieu, did not include the slaves, many
citizens opposed their education on the ground that their mental
improvement was inconsistent with their position as persons held to
service. For this reason there was never put forward any systematic
effort to elevate the slaves. Every master believed that he had a
divine right to deal with the situation as he chose. Moreover, even
before the policy of mental and moral improvement of the slaves could
be given a trial, some colonists, anticipating the "evils of the
scheme," sought to obviate them by legislation. Such we have observed
was the case in Virginia,[1] South Carolina,[2] and Georgia.[3] To
control the assemblies of slaves, North Carolina,[4] Delaware,[5] and
Maryland[6] early passed strict regulations for their inspection.

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871,