various forms by
these unhappy wretches, under the blind infatuation of revising the
land of their nativity.

Possessed of Christian sentiments, they fail not to exercise them when
an opportunity offers. Things pleasing rejoice them, and melancholy
circumstances pall their appetites for amusements.--They brook no
insults, and are equally prone to forgiveness as to resentment; they
have gratitude also, and will even expose their own lives, to wipe off
the obligation of past favours; nor do they want any of the
refinements of taste, so much the boast of those who call themselves
Christians.

The talent for music, both vocal and instrumental, appears natural to
them: Neither is their genius for literature to be despised; many
instances are recorded of men of eminence amongst them: Witness
Ignatius Sancho, whose letters are admired by all men of
taste--Phillis Wheatley, who distinguished herself as a poetess--The
physician of New Orleans--The Virginia calculator--Banneker, the
Maryland Astronomer, and many others whom it would be needless to
mention. These are sufficient to shew, that the Africans, whom you
despise, whom you inhumanly treat as brutes, and whom you unlawfully
subject to slavery, with the tyrannizing hands of Despots, are equally
capable of improvements with yourselves.

This you may think a bold assertion, but it is not made without
reflection, nor independent of the testimony of many, who have taken
pains with their education.

Because you few, in comparison to their number, who make any exertions
of abilities at all, you are ready to enjoy the common opinion, that
they are inferior set of beings, and destined by nature to the
cruelties and hardships you impose upon them.

But be cautious how long you hold such sentiments; the time may come,
when you will be obliged to abandon them--consider the pitiable
situation of these most distressed beings; deprived of their liberty
and reduced to slavery; consider also, that they toil not for
themselves, from the rising of the Sun to its going down, and you will
readily conceive the cause of their inaction.

What time, or what incitement has a slave to become wise? there is no
great art in hilling corn, or in running a furrow; and to do this,
they know they are doomed, whether they seek into the mysteries of
science, or remain ignorant as they are.

To deprive a man of his liberty, has a tendency to rob his soul of
every spring to virtuous actions; and were