did you know one of the greatest tests of the first amendment was the debate over slavery before the Civil War we all know the United States provides some of the strongest protections for political expression and Free Speech in the world but unfortunately throughout history people of color have often times been deprived of these rights in the 1830s as the Abolitionist Movement grew Southern governments responded with harsh restrictions on the First Amendment including making it illegal to teach black people to read or write in 1836 Virginia passed a law that made it illegal to publish quote incendiary doctrines including denying someone the right to own slaves or defending a black person's right to rebel and a year later Missouri passed a similar law Southern States even successfully lobbied the United States Postmaster General to refrain from delivering abolitionist Publications in the south after the Civil War John Bingham the drafter of the 14th Amendment expressed hope for a new birth of the First Amendment writing the American people cannot have peace if as in the past states are allowed to take away freedom of speech