Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-05-06
rue FREE NEGRO QUESTION.


great force and intelligence by many of
our Northern exchanges, and FROM them
VIC clip the following as indications of the
appreciation which is had elsewhere of
the movements in this State:
From the New York Day-Booli
FREE NEGROES -Frcc negroes are get
ting to be a very unpopular Institution
and We have no hesitation in predicting
that the present movement in many OF
the States for their expulsion or return
TO ''slavery" will continue until such
nlisnomcr as free negro will be unknown
to exist. We learn from the Missouri
Democrat that the bill which has been
under discussion in the Legislature to
exclude free negroes from that State has
passed. This bill also prevents enamel
patton. It passed the house by SO ayes
10 80 nays, an evidence Of unanilnity
which does not look as if Missouri was
going to abolish slavery" as has been
80 grandiloquently tailed about by the
Abolitionists of this section
uN Vi LAfkulhuS utiS ALSO
Just passed a bill to expcl free negroes
from that State. They have until Jan
uary 1860, to dispose of their property,
and make other arrangements for leav-
ing. If they do not 90 then, it is made
the duty of sherifs to seize them and
hire them out to the highest bidder for
one year, giving them the net proceeds
OF their labor to enable them to leave
the State This bill provides that such
free negroes as desire to remain, may
choose masters -the County Court hav-
ing them appraised and the master or
mistress they have chosen paying half
their value into the Common School fund
of the county
Maryland, State more wofully cursed
by free negroes than any other in the
Union, is also discussing this important
subject. There are in some single rural
counties Of Maryland more free negroes
than in all the New England States, and
being idle and producing, they are
a severe tax upon the industry of the
whites. We have no doubt Maryland
will follow the example Of her sister
States and abate the nuisance Ignorant
and doluded people may suppose that the
Legislation We refer to is dictated by ha-
tired to the negro. Nothing. however,
could be further from the truth than this
view of the case. It is for the ncgro's
best interests to be provided with a mas
ter, and it would actually be one of the
most conspicuous acts of humanity which
the nineteenth century could witness, i'll
every free negro in the United States
were thus provided for. 1t would save
him and his progeny from that inevitable
extinction which is sure to be his fate
when lett to cope, without d master ' I;
protection, with the superior energy and
will of the white man.
[From the Philadelphia Ledger.
TIM CoLoRED PoruLAT1oN. -Thc col
orcd population of the United States,
originally all slaves, are now divided into
two classes slaves and free. The cen
sus of 1920 showed the latter to be 23O.-
GOO; in 1850, it had increased to no.
600, and now it is estimated to exceed
half million About sixty thousand
reside in Pennsylvania. The condition
of these people, it cannot be disguised, is
neither comfortable nor encouraging for
themselves The circumstances which
surround them are constantly changing
and though now better educated, more
refined, with more appreciative tastes,
comforts, and wealth, they are still worse
of, and under greater disabilities, than
thirty years ago Indeed, their very
elevation leads them to feel more keculy
their depressed state. The great redun-
dancy of white labor, entering into COM
petition, has driven the colored man from
many Of the occupations which were his
even by prescription.
The natural prejudices oil the opposing
race are constantly strengthening, and
the condition Of the people of color is
rendered more and more hopeless by le-
gislative enactments The frequency Of
the latter during the last winter is start
ling in detinitcness, and in their very
stringent features Thus. Arkansas has
passed law to expcl its free colorcd
population. II is further provided that,
if they do not leave during the present
year, they are liable to be seized and
hired out, so as to procure the means of
removing from the State The lower
House Of the Legislature of Missouri
have likewise passed a bill, by vote of
lightweight yeas to twenty nays, in
which it is declared chat all I" free ne
groes residing in the State 10 1860, shall
become slaves. 1t also forbids emanci-
patton within the limits of the State -
Similar measures have been proposed in
the legislatures of Mississippi, Louisiana.
Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Ma
ryland, and doubtless in other States. -
The Legislature Of Arkansas approved
an act which prohibits, under severe pen
alties, the employment Of free negroes
on water crafts navigating the rivers of
that State
No slave, however worthy. can hence
forth, in Louisiana and several other
States, have freedom conferred upon him
while in those States neither is he per-
mitted to return after being emancipated
The supreme Judicial Tribunal Of Vir-
ginia has decided ''that slaves have no
civil or social rights, and that the slave
cannot choose between freedom and sla-
very, il the offer be made him by his
master; and that consequently, q slave
lcft by his master with freedom, il he
choose to take it, can have no legal right