acts against the importation of slaves, which the King vetoed on petition of the Massachusetts slave-traders. Jefferson made these acts of the King one of the grievances of the Declaration of Independence, but a Massachusetts member succeeded in striking it out. The Southern men in the convention which framed the Constitution put into it a clause abolishing the slave-trade, but the Massachusetts men succeeded in adding a clause extending the trade twenty years"
He smiled and paused.
"Go on," she said, with impatience.
"In Colonial days a negro woman was publicly burned to death in Boston. The first Abolition paper was published in Tennessee by Embree. Benjamin Lundy, his successor, could not find a single Abolitionist in Boston. In 1828 over half the people of Tennessee favoured Abolition. At this time there were one hundred and forty Abolition Societies in America—one hundred and three in the South, and not one in Massachusetts. It was not until 1836 that Massachusetts led in Abolition—not until all her own slaves had been sold to us at a profit and the slave-trade had been destroyed"
She looked at Ben with anger for a moment and met his tantalising look of good-humour.
"Can you stand any more?"
"Certainly, I enjoy it."
"I'm just breaking down the barriers—so to speak," he said, with the laughter still lurking in his eyes, as he looked steadily ahead.
"By all means, go on," she said, soberly. "I thought
