31 provided that
no congregation or meeting of free Negroes or mulattoes of more than
twelve persons should be held later than twelve o'clock at night,
except under the direction of three respectable white persons who were
to attend the meeting. It further provided that no free Negro should
attempt to call a meeting for religious worship, to exhort or preach,
unless he was authorized to do so by a judge or justice of the peace,
upon the recommendation of five "respectable and judicious citizens."
[2] This measure tended only to prevent the dissemination of
information among Negroes by making it impossible for them to
assemble. It was not until 1863 that the State of Delaware finally
passed a positive measure to prevent the assemblages of colored
persons for instruction and all other meetings except for religious
worship and the burial of the dead.[3] Following the example of
Delaware in 1832, Florida passed a law prohibiting all meetings of
Negroes except those for divine worship at a church or place attended
by white persons.[4] Florida made the same regulations more stringent
in 1846 when she enjoyed the freedom of a State.[5]

[Footnote 1] Hutchinson, _Code of Mississippi_, p. 533.

[Footnote 2] _Laws of Delaware_, 1832, pp. 181-182.

[Footnote 3] _Ibid._, 1863, p. 330 _et seq._

[Footnote 4: _Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of
Florida, 1832_, p. 145.]

[Footnote 5: _Acts of Florida, 1846_, ch. 87, sec. 9.]

Alabama had some difficulty in getting a satisfactory law. In 1832
this commonwealth enacted a law imposing a fine of from $250 to $500
on persons who should attempt to educate any Negro whatsoever. The act
also prohibited the usual unlawful assemblies and the preaching or
exhorting of Negroes except in the presence of five "respectable
slaveholders" or unless the officiating minister was licensed by some
regular church of which the persons thus exhorted were members.[1] It
soon developed that the State had gone too far. It had infringed upon
the rights and privileges of certain creoles, who, being residents
of the Louisiana Territory when it was purchased in 1803, had been
guaranteed the rights of citizens of the United States. Accordingly in
1833 the Mayor and the Aldermen of Mobile were authorized by law to
grant licenses to such persons as they might deem suitable to instruct
for limited periods, in that city and the counties of Mobile and
Baldwin, the free colored children, who were d