The white settlers of the colonies held out successfully in putting down the early riots of Negroes.

When the increasing intelligent Negroes of the South, however, observed in the abolition literature how the condition of the American slaves differed from that of the ancient servants and even from what it once had been in the United States; when they fully realized their intolerable condition compared with that of white men, who were clamoring for liberty and equality, there rankled in the bosom of slaves that insurrectionary passion productive of the daring uprisings which made the chances for the enlightenment of colored people poorer than they had ever been in the history of this country.
The more alarming insurrections of the first quarter of the nineteenth century were the immediate cause of the most reactionary measures.
It was easily observed that these movements were due to the mental improvement of the colored people during the struggle for the rights of man.

Not only had Negroes heard from the lips of their masters warm words of praise for the leaders of the French Revolution but had developed sufficient intelligence themselves to read the story of the heroes of the world, who were then emboldened to refresh the tree of liberty "with the blood of patriots and tyrants."[1] The insurrectionary passion among the colored people was kindled, too, around Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and New Orleans by certain Negroes who to escape the horrors of the political upheaval in Santo Domingo,[2] immigrated into this country in 1793.

The education of the colored race had paved the way for the dissemination of their ideas of liberty and equality.

Enlightened bondmen persistently made trouble for the white people in these vicinities.