Racism was a major factor in the public's wariness of the emancipated slaves, so it's part of it. Either way, new laws intended to be selectively enforced against emancipated slaves and other undesirables are a feature of the 1800s (and to a lesser extent, the early to mid 1900s).

That was what I was getting at.

By "late for the region" I meant compared to their neighbours to the North and East (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, The Vermont Republic†) and Pennsylvania.

† Not a state at the time, for the obvious reason of being an unrecognized secession from New York, for the purpose of (among other things) abolishing adult slavery.