reproach of slavery, but to many of those States great positive praise is due, for having actually, at a. great sacrifice, abolished slavery Within their respective limits. Hardly had the yoke of subjection to Great Britain been thrown off, when the Northern States set themselves earnestly and conscientiously to this task (for, through the influence of the mother country, slaves existed, it is to be remembered, in all the. Colonies, even in Massachusetts and in the city of Boston). As early as the year 1780, in the very midst of the War of Independence, the State of Pennsylvania, one of the largest and most populous of the States, set the example, by passing an Act for the gradual abolition of slavery within her boundaries. "This has the merit," says Mr. Freeman, of being the earliest legislative proceeding of the kind in any country."[1] This noble example was followed, at different periods, by all the other States to the north and east of Pennsylvania, namely, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Thus, seven of the original thirteen States have already abolished slavery within their limits.
And the good work would doubtless have gone on, had not a most unwise system of violent attack and denunciation been commenced by a party at the North, — composed at first of a few individuals, who were determined that slavery should be put an end to at once, without considering the impossibility of such a thing, under the circumstances. "One by one,"
- ↑ Plea for Africa, Conversation XIII.
