t
it is as a poet that posterity will hail her in the coming ages of our
Race. For pathos, depth of spiritual insight, and magical exercise of
a rare power of self-utterance, it will hardly be questioned that she
has surpassed every competitor [259] among females--white or
black--save and except Elizabeth Barett Browning, with whom the gifted
African stands on much the same plane of poetic excellence.

The above summary of our past vicissitudes and actual position shows
that there is nothing in our political circumstances to occasion
uneasiness. The miserable skin and race doctrine we have been
discussing does not at all prefigure the destinies at all events of the
West Indies, or determine the motives that will affect them. With the
exception of those belonging to the Southern states of the Union, the
vast body of African descendants now dispersed in various countries of
the Western Hemisphere are at sufficient peace to begin occupying
themselves, according to some fixed programme, about matters of racial
importance. More than ten millions of Africans are scattered over the
wide area indicated, and possess amongst them instances of mental and
other qualifications which render them remarkable among their
fellow-men. But like the essential parts of a complicated albeit
perfect machine, these attainments and qualifications so widely
dispersed await, it is evident, some potential [260] agency to collect
and adjust them into the vast engine essential for executing the true
purposes of the civilized African Race. Already, especially since the
late Emancipation Jubilee, are signs manifest of a desire for
intercommunion and intercomprehension amongst the more distinguished of
our people. With intercourse and unity of purpose will be secured the
means to carry out the obvious duties which are sure to devolve upon
us, especially with reference to the cradle of our Race, which is most
probably destined to be the ultimate resting-place and headquarters of
millions of our posterity. Within the short time that we had to
compass all that we have achieved, there could not have arisen
opportunities for doing more than we have effected. Meanwhile our
present device is: "Work, Hope, and Wait!"

Finally, it must be borne in mind that the abolition of physical
bondage did not by any means secure all the requisite conditions of "a
fair field and no favour" for the future career of the freedmen. The
remnant of Jacob, on their return