Held as slaves in the South, they were stamped as social outcasts at the North.

There was no one, however mean or vicious, who if he possessed a white skin, was not treated more humanely than were they.

In the most enlightened of the free States they were discriminated against by public laws and proscribed by public opinion.

They were in a word pariahs of the republic.

They were shut out from all the common rights, and privileges and opportunities enjoyed by the lowest of the favored race.
They were denied equality in the public school.