Kemble brings petitions from the slaves to her husband asking for better conditions for slaves, but Butler refuses. Free blacks in the North create their own schools, orphanages, and churches. However, they are denied the right to vote, testify against whites, sign a binding contract, or attend white schools. In 1842 Harriet Jacobs finds freedom in Philadelphia. In 1845, Frederick Douglass' Narrative becomes an international bestseller.
Black abolitionists challenge the Constitution and ask for the same rights and privileges as whites.
In 1847 Douglass publishes his anti-slavery newspaper, The North Star, in Rochester, New York. By one estimate, black miners send home from California over three quarters of a million dollars to buy loved ones out of bondage. California successfully petitions to be a free state. Southern leaders threaten to quit the Union. A new Fugitive Slave law passes.