In 1832 eight states were represented by a total of thirty delegates.  By this time we learn that a total of eight hundred acres had been secured in Canada, that two thousand Negroes had gone thither, but that considerable hostility had been manifested on the part of the Canadians.  Hesitant, the convention appointed an agent to investigate the situation.  It expressed itself as strongly opposed to any national aid to the American Colonization Society and urged the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia—­all of which activity, it is well to remember, was a year before the American Anti-Slavery Society was organized.

In 1833 there were fifty-eight delegates, and Abraham Shadd, now of Washington, was chosen president.  The convention again gave prominence to the questions of Canada and colonization, and expressed itself with reference to the new law in Connecticut prohibiting Negroes from other states from attending schools within the state.  The 1834 meeting was held in New York.  Prudence Crandall[1] was commended for her stand in behalf of the race, and July 4 was set apart as a day for prayer and addresses on the condition of the Negro throughout the country.  By this time we hear much of societies for temperance and moral reform, especially of the so-called Phoenix Societies “for improvement in general culture—­literature, mechanic arts, and morals.”  Of these organizations Rev. Christopher Rush, of the A.M.E.  Zion Church, was general president, and among the directors were Rev. Peter Williams, Boston Crummell, the father of Alexander Crummell, and Rev. William Paul Quinn, afterwards a well-known bishop of the A.M.E.  Church.  The 1835 and 1836 meetings were held in Philadelphia, and especially were the students of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati commended for their zeal in the cause of abolition.  A committee was appointed to look into the dissatisfaction of some emigrants to Liberia and generally to review the work of the Colonization Society.

[Footnote 1:  See Chapter X, Section 3.]

In the decade 1837-1847 Frederick Douglass was outstanding as a leader, and other men who were now prominent were Dr. James McCune Smith, Rev. James W.C.  Pennington, Alexander Crummell, William C. Nell, and Martin R. Delany.  These are important names in the history of the period.  These were the men who bore the brunt of the contest in the furious days of Texas annexation and the Compromise of 1850.  About 1853 and 1854 there was renewed interest in the idea of an industrial college; steps were taken for the registry of Negro mechanics and artisans who were in search of employment, and of the names of persons who were willing to give them work; and there was also a committee on historical records and statistics that was not only to compile studies in Negro biography but also to reply to any assaults of note.[1]

[Footnote 1:  We can not too much emphasize the fact that the leaders of this period were by no means impractical theorists but men who were scientifically approaching the social problem of their people.  They not only anticipated such ideas as those of industrial education and of the National Urban League of the present day, but they also endeavored to lay firmly the foundations of racial self-respect.]