They were thereafter either discharged upon producing certificates of nativity or giving bond or were indefinitely held.[44] In southern Indiana and Illinois the same condition obtained.

Observing the situation in Indiana, a contributor of _Niles Register_ remarked, in 1818, upon the arrival there of sixty or seventy liberated Negroes sent by the society of Friends of North Carolina, that they were a species of population that was not acceptable to the people of that State, "nor indeed to any other, whether free or slaveholding, for they cannot rise and become like other men, unless in countries where their own color predominates, but must always remain a degraded and inferior class of persons without the hope of much bettering their condition."[45] The _Indiana Farmer_, voicing the sentiment of that same community, regretted the increase of this population that seemed to be enlarging the number sent to that territory.

The editor insisted that the community which enjoys the benefits of the blacks' labor should also suffer all the consequences.

Since the people of Indiana derived no advantage from slavery, he begged that they be excused from its inconveniences.

Most of the blacks that migrated there, moreover, possessed, thought he, "feelings quite unprepared to make good citizens.