The friends of the Negroes, however, received more encouragement during the two decades immediately preceding the Civil War.

There was a change in the attitude of northern cities toward the uplift of the colored refugees.

Catholics, Protestants, and abolitionists often united their means to make provision for the education of accessible Negroes, although these friends of the oppressed could not always agree on other important schemes.

Even the colonizationists, the object of attack from the ardent antislavery element, considerably aided the cause.

They educated for work in Liberia a number of youths, who, given the opportunity to attend good schools, demonstrated the capacity of the colored people.