Every barrier was now broken down inside of anti-slavery organizations; and having conquered the prejudice that crippled their work, they enjoyed greater freedom in the prosecution of their labors. The Colored orators wrought a wonderful change in public sentiment. In the inland white communities throughout the Northern States Negroes were few, and the majority of them were servants; some of them indolent and vicious. From these few the moral and intellectual photograph of the entire race was taken. So it was meet that Negro orators of refinement should go from town to town. The North needed arousing and educating on the anti-slavery question, and no class did more practical work in this direction than the little company of orators, with the peerless Douglass at its head, that pleaded the cause of their brethren in the flesh before the cultivated audiences of New England, the Middle and Western States,--yea, even in the capital cities of conservative Europe. FOOTNOTES: [28] The Minutes, in possession of the author. CHAPTER VII. NEGRO INSURRECTIONS. THE NEGRO NOT SO DOCILE AS SUPPOSED.--THE REASON WHY HE WAS KEPT IN BONDAGE.--NEGROES POSSESSED COURAGE BUT LACKED LEADERS.--INSURRECTION OF SLAVES.--GEN. GABRIEL AS A LEADER.--NEGRO INSURRECTION PLANNED IN SOUTH CAROLINA.--EVILS OF SLAVERY REVEALED.--THE "NAT. TURNER" INSURRECTION IN SOUTH HAMPTON COUNTY, VIRGINIA.--THE WHITES ARM THEMSELVES TO REPEL THE INSURRECTIONISTS.--CAPTURE AND TRIAL OF "NAT. TURNER."--HIS EXECUTION.--EFFECT OF THE INSURRECTION UPON SLAVES AND SLAVE-HOLDERS. The supposed docility of the American Negro was counted among the reasons why it was thought he could never gain his freedom on this continent. But this was a misinterpretation of his real character. Besides, it was next to impossible to learn the history of the Negro during the years of his enslavement at the South. The question was often asked: Why don't the Negroes rise at the South and exterminate their enslavers? Negatively, not because they lacked the courage, but because they lacked leaders [as has been stated already, they sought the North and their freedom through the Underground R. R.] to organize them. But notwithstanding this great disadvantage the Negroes _did_ rise on several different occasions, and did effective work. "Three times, at intervals of thirty years, has a wave of unutterable terror swept across the Old Dominion, bringing thoughts of agony to every Virginian master, and of vague hope to every Virginian slave. Each time has one man's name become a spell of dismay and a symbol of deliverance. Each time has that name eclipsed its predecessor, while recalling it for a moment to fresher memory; John Brown revived the story of Nat. Turner, as in his day Nat. Turner recalled the vaster schemes of Gabriel."[29]