The continued migration of Negroes to the North,
despite the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, made this
distribution more unequal. While the free colored population of the
slave States increased only 23,736 from 1850 to 1860, that of the
free States increased 29,839. In the South only Delaware, Georgia,
Maryland, and North Carolina showed a noticeable increase in the
number of free persons of color during the decade immediately
preceding the Civil War. This element of the population had only
slightly increased in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee,
Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. The
number of free Negroes of Florida remained practically constant. Those
of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas diminished. In the North, of
course, the tendency was in the other direction. With the exception of
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, which had about the same
free colored population in 1860 as they had in 1850, there was a
general increase in the number of Negroes in the free States. Ohio
led in this respect having had during this period an increase of
11,394.[2]
[Footnote 1: Jones, _Religious Instruction of the Negroes_, p.
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