In some large districts it was considered almost a phenomenon to find a Negro who could read the Bible or sign his name.[1] [Footnote 1:_Ibid._, pp.

323-324.] The reactionary tendency was in no sense confined to the Southern States.

Laws were passed in the North to prevent the migration of Negroes to that section.

Their education at certain places was discouraged.

In fact, in the proportion that the conditions in the South made it necessary for free blacks to flee from oppression, the people of the North grew less tolerant on account of the large number of those who crowded the towns and cities of the free States near the border.