Throughout the North as well as in Virginia there were thoughtful men
who knew that here was the difficulty. Slavery might be abolished, but
the presence of two non-assimilable races, separated by centuries in
their stages of development, endeavoring to live in peace under a
Republican form of government—these conditions presented the problem
which would tax to the utmost their resourcefulness and patience.
How strong was the sense of danger among the people of the free
states, which would result from such conditions, may be read in the
provisions of their constitutions and laws.
Probably in New England the laws were more favorable to free negroes
than in any other part of the North; but, even there, conditions were
far from normal, and certainly not such as to encourage the
immigration of the free blacks from Maryland and Virginia—where they
were most numerous.