while I only meant to give the world
this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the
imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me
not to give it place in the public prints.

If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters,
I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses,
and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her
dispensations.

I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.[355]

This letter is a handsome compliment to the poetess, and does honor to
both the head and heart of the general. His modesty, so
characteristic, has deprived history of its dues. But it is consoling
to know that the sentiments of the poem found a response in the
patriotic heart of the _first soldier of the Revolution, and the
Father of his Country_!

While Phillis Wheatley stands out as one of the most distinguished
characters of this period, and who, as a Colored person, had no equal,
yet she was not the only individual of her race of intellect and
character. A Negro boy from Africa was purchased by a Mr. Slocum, who
resided near New Bedford, Mass. After he acquired the language, he
turned his thoughts to freedom, and in a few years, by working beyond
the hours he devoted to his master, was enabled to buy himself from
his master. He married an Indian woman named Ruth Moses, and settled
at Cutterhunker, in the Elizabeth Islands, near New Bedford. In a few
years, through industry and frugality, John Cuffe--the name he took as
a freeman--was enabled to purchase a good farm of one hundred (100)
acres. Every year recorded new achievements, until John Cuffe had a
wide reputation for wealth, honesty, and intelligence. He applied
himself to books, and secured, as the ripe fruit of his studious
habits, a fair business education. Both himself and wife were
Christian believers; and to lives of industry and increasing secular
knowledge, they added that higher knowledge which makes alive to
"everlasting life." Ten children were born unto them,--four boys and
six girls. One of the boys, Paul Cuffe, became one of the most
distinguished men of color Massachusetts has produced. The reader will
be introduced to him in the proper place in the history. John Cuffe
died in 1745, leaving behind, in addition to considerable property, a
good name, which is of great price.[356]

Richard