iours of
their country, and the deliverers of mankind--I see other memories honoured
with statues, and their names immortalized in poetry--and yet when a
generous negro is animated by the same passion which ennobled them,--when
he feels the wrongs of his countrymen as deeply, and attempts to avenge
them as boldly--I see him treated by those same Europeans as the most
execrable of mankind, and led out, amidst curses and insults to undergo a
painful, gradual and ignominious death: And thus the same Briton, who
applauds his own ancestors for attempting to throw off the easy yoke,
imposed on them by the Romans, punishes us, as detested parricides, for
seeking to get free from the cruelest of all tyrannies, and yielding to the
irresistible eloquence of an African Galgacus or Boadicea.

Are then the reason and morality, for which Europeans so highly value
themselves, of a nature so variable and fluctuating, as to change with the
complexion of those, to whom they are applied?--Do rights of nature cease
to be such, when a negro is to enjoy them?--Or does patriotism in the heart
of an African, rankle into treason?

A Free Negro
--_American Museum_, V, 77 et seq., 1789.

REMARKABLE SPEECH OF ADAHOONZOU, KING OF DAHOMEY, AN INTERIOR NATION OF
AFRICA, ON HEARING WHAT WAS PASSING IN ENGLAND RESPECTING THE SLAVE TRADE

I admire the reasoning of the white men; but with all their sense, it does
not appear that they have thoroughly studied the nature of the blacks,
whose disposition differs as much from that of the whites, as their colour.
The same great Being formed both; and since it hath seemed convenient for
him to distinguish mankind by opposite complexions, it is a fair conclusion
to presume that there may be as a great a disagreement in the qualitie
of their minds; there is likewise a remarkable difference between the
countries which we inhabit. You, Englishmen, for instance, as I have been
informed, are surrounded by the ocean, and by this situation seem intended
to hold communication with the whole world, which you do, by means of your
ships; whilst we Dahomans, being placed on a large continent, and hemmed in
amidst a variety of other people, of the same complexion, but speaking
different languages, are obliged by the sharpness of our swords, to defend
ourselves from their incursions, and punish the depredations they make on
us. Such conduct in them is productive of incessant wars. Your countrymen,
therefore, who alle