Hinton Rowan Helper published a book called The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It. Helper had taken it upon himself to count how many schools, libraries, and other public-serving institutions had been set up in free states compared to slave states. In New Hampshire, for instance, he counted 2,381 public schools; in Mississippi, just 782. Maine had 236 libraries; Georgia, 38. The disparity was similar everywhere he looked.
