Free Negroes in the Northern United States [pp. 573-581]

FREE NEGROES IN THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES.
NOTE.-In the enumeration we have made of the different vqcabularies and
lists prefixed and affixed to the Dictionary of Dr. Worcester, we have not intended an invidious comparison with the similar lists appended to Dr. Webster's
Dictionary. We presume, without having made a very minute examination, that
they consist of very much the same matter. Besides these, however, in the
latest edition of Webster, we have a separate collection of very well executed
pictorial illustrations, stated to be 1,500 in number, an appendix of 10,000 additional words. and a treatise on synonymes by Dr. Goodrich. We have nothing
to say against these additions in themselves. They are, we doubt not, of great
value, but it is obvious they would be much more valuable if inserted in their
proper places in the body of the vocabulary, as in Worcester's Dictionary. The
might as well be in separate volumes for all purposes of convenient reference as
where they are. Indeed it would be better in many respects, for the reason that
those persons who already possess Webster's Dictionary could then furnish
themselves with the addenda, without being subjected to the cost of purchasing
the new edition. But in truth, in a proper sense, no new edition of Webster's
Dictionary has been published for many years; additional copies to supply the
demand are printed from time to time from the old stereotype plates, and occasionally new matter is inserted, but always necessarily by way of appendix.
Until a new edition is published from new plates, and all this matter appropriately distributed, Webster's Dictionary must labor under the disadvantage of
being cumbrous in form, and deficient in orderly arrangement.
ART. VIII.-FREE NEGROES 1N THE NORTHERN UNITED) STATES.
"FOR it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it;
neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I
would have hid myself from him; but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide,
and mine acquaintance."
WHATEVER may be the condition of the negro in Southern
countries, where but few professions of philanthropy are made, it is
doubtful if his situation, whether in slavery or in freedom, is anywhere worse than in the Northern States of the Union-in the home
of his own familiar friends-among the people who claim to be his
protectors and his guides, and who profess to regard him as their
equal.
According to the census of 1850, there were in the Northern Free
States, about 200,000 free negroes; the great majority of whom, or
about 163,000, were living in the five States of New-York, NewJersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Of these five States, Pennsylvania contained the greatest number, or about 54,000, and Indiana the smallest, or about 11,000. The little State of New-Jersey
contained more free negroes than all the six New-England States put
together, having 23,810, while New-England had 23,021.
Free negroes in the North are generally considered a nuisance, as
they have been in every community on earth, just in proportion as
the race among which they lived was industrious, elevated, or
virtuous. Wherever they have been found in any considerable numbers among Anglo-Saxons in northern countries, their laziness, their
viciousness, their licentiousness and improvidence, have soon disgusted
their best friends, and made the several communities in which they
dwelt, anxious to be rid of them. This is called prejudice by those
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