Under the “Slavery Record” There is a record of a meeting of the proslavery citizens of Athens and Limestone County, to consider how to respond to “an organized band of abolition fanatics of the northern states” naming some of them with a capitalization of “Birney”, “whose sole and avowed object is to sow the seed of discord, rapine, and murder among the slaves of the south ……. Shall we fold our arms and be still until the storm sweeps over us and the earth shakes beneath us? No. We declare to the world that we will defend our liberties and our property which the constitution of our country has guaranteed to us; but having rights and knowing them, we shall dare maintain them….”
In resolutions the meeting then goes on to appoint a “committee of vigilance” whose duty it shall be to apprehend any suspicious persons and bring them before the committee for examination.
The issues then includes a long response from Birney, beginning of page 1 and continued on page 4.
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