Presumably free colored people exercised the suffrage in New Jersey up to 1844, as there appears no limitation of suffrage on account of color prior to its mention in the constitution of that year. New York, in an act of the legislature of 1799, provided for gradual emancipation of the slaves, and by an act of 1811 it required "free colored people" to carry certificates of their freedom as proofs of their claim thereto. In 1814 the legislature of the State authorized the raising of two regiments of colored soldiers to be officered by white men. In 1823, Negroes who resided in the State three years and possessed a free-hold estate of the assessed value of two hundred and fifty dollars were entitled to exercise the elective franchise, a requirement not imposed upon white people. It is interesting to note that up to 1723, free colored people appear to have exercised the elective franchise equally with the whites in Virginia. The colonial constitution of that year limited its exercise to white people, and the free colored people never voted again until the adoption of the Underwood or reconstruction constitution. Besides this, contrary to conditions above described in the Northern States the laws in relation to free colored people grew harsher and harsher until 1831, when we find a statute prohibiting meetings for teaching free Negroes or mulattoes reading or writing. In 1832, free Negroes were forbidden to preach the gospel. In 1834 free Negroes were forbidden to immigrate into the State. In 1838 free Negroes leaving the State to be educated were forbidden to return. In 1851, the constitution of Virginia of that year, in Sec. 5, Art. 19, provided: That slaves hereafter emancipated shall forfeit their freedom by remaining in the commonwealth more than twelve months, and in 1856, the legislature of Virginia passed an act providing that free Negroes might voluntarily make agreements to become slaves and that such agreement should be binding. In North Carolina free colored people seem to have exercised most of the rights of white people including that of voting, until 1835, when the right to vote was confined to persons of the white race. In all of the slave States the free colored man was hampered by legislative provisions exactly like or very similar to those just cited as existing in Virginia. In none of these States could free colored people hold the legal title to real property, in none of them did they have the right of public assembly, the right to bear arms or the right to carry on collectively the work of education. In few of them did they even have the right to preach the gospel, and where they did preach it was by favor and permission, and not by right. Of all these Southern slave-holding States Maryland ruled its free colored people with something suggestive of humanity.