It was estimated that half of the two thousand inhabitants of
the area left the city. Many of them emigrated to Canada, and the
local paper, which had helped to inflame the mob, lamented that the
respectable black citizens had left and only derelicts remained.
At the very point in American history when democracy was sinking
its roots deeper into the national soil, the status of the
Afro-American was being clearly defined as an inferior one. The
Jacksonian Era brought the common man into new prominence, but the
same privileges were not extended to the blacks. In the South,
society was strengthening the institution of slavery against any
possible recurrences of slave insurrections. The activities of the
slaves, especially those of Negro preachers, were being watched even
more closely than before. In the North, both state and federal laws
denied blacks many of the rights of citizenship.
PART TWO Emancipation Without Freedom
Chapter 5
A Nation Divided
Black Moderates And Black Militants
On the eve of the Revolution there was justification for
assuming that slavery in the Northern states was withering away.
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