Of my neighbors, friends, and kindred, nearly one-half have left the State since I was old enough to remember. Many is the time I have stood by the loaded emigrant wagon, and given the parting hand to those whose face I was never to look upon again. They were going to seek homes in the free West, knowing, they did, that free and slave labor could not both exist and prosper in the same community.
–“Professor Hedrick’s Defence,”
October 4, 1856
What evidence does Hedrick give to show that people in North Carolina were opposed to slavery?
Many North Carolinians had become abolitionists.
The people of North Carolina had voted to make the state free.
Many residents had left the state to live in the free territories.
A number of residents had left the state to live in the North.