Their knowledge of this subject of discussion was academic, theoretical, acquired at second-hand.
In New York and New Jersey slaves were much more numerous than in New England.

There were still slaves in considerable numbers until about 1825.

The people had a knowledge of the institution from experience and observation, and there was no break in the continuity of their organized abolition societies.

Chief among the objects of these societies was the effort to prevent kidnapping and to guard the rights of free negroes.
For both of these purposes there was a continuous call for activity.
Pennsylvania also had freedmen of her own whose rights called for guardianship, as well as many freedmen from farther south who had come into the State.
The movement of protest and protection did not stop at Mason and Dixon's Line, but extended far into the South.

In both North Carolina and Tennessee an active protest against slavery was at all times maintained.
In this great middle section of the country, between New England and South Carolina, there was no cessation in the conflict between free and slave labor.