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EMIGRATING TO PENNSYLVANIA
On Wednesday last, a lot of negroes, men, women and children, eighty-six in number, passed through this place on their way to Pennsylvania, where they intend making their abode for life. They came from Fauquier County, Virginia—their masters having liberated them on condition that they would leave the State. Hence, rather than live in slavery, they have emigrated to a free state, to combat the vicissitudes of the world, hoping for the best. Will the people of Pennsylvania approve of this large emigration of paupers into their territory? Presume they will seriously object to it. The love and friendship which they profess for them will hardly prompt them to hail them with joy and greeting into their communities They are aware of the misery prevailing among these colored emigrants which must inevitably spread itself among them, and bring calamity upon them that will destroy their happiness and blight their future hope of prosperity.
The people of Pennsylvania desire that the slave negroes should be here; yet they do not desire that they should be liberated and driven upon them with their miseries and pauperism, to better and improve. It is true there are men in that State, who welcome the absconded slave, and render him assistance that he may not be apprehended. But those men are not willing to sacrifice their own happiness and peace for the free. Their love is not so deep that it will make them the victims.