t the time, one of the brightest ornaments among the American
literati. She also was well versed in Latin, in which language she
composed several pieces. Miss Wheatley died in 1780, at the age of 26
years, being seven years of age when brought to this country in 1761.

Doctor Peter, who married Miss Wheatley, 1775, was a man of business,
tact, and talents--being first a grocer, and afterwards studied law,
which he practised with great success, becoming quite wealthy by
defending the cause of the oppressed before the different tribunals of
the country. And who shone brighter in his day, than Benjamin Bannaker,
of Baltimore county, Maryland, who by industry and force of character,
became a distinguished mathematician and astronomer,--"for many years,"
says Davenport's Biographical Dictionary, "calculated and published the
Maryland Ephemerides." He was a correspondent of the Honorable Thomas
Jefferson, Secretary of State of the United States, taking the earliest
opportunity of his acquaintanceship, to call his attention to the evils
of American slavery, and doubtless his acquaintance with the apostle of
American Democracy, had much to do with his reflections on that most
pernicious evil in this country. Mr. Bannaker was also a naturalist, and
wrote a treatise on locusts. He was invited by the Commission of United
States Civil Engineers, to assist in the survey of the Ten Miles Square,
for the District of Columbia. He assisted the Board, who, it is thought,
could not have succeeded without him. His Almanac was preferred to that
of Leadbeater, or any other calculator cotemporary with himself. He had
no family, and resided in a house alone, but principally made his home
with the Elliott family. He was upright, honorable, and virtuous;
entertaining religious scruples similar to the Friends. He died in 1807,
near Baltimore. Honorable John H.B. Latrobe, Esq., of Baltimore, is his
biographer.

In 1812, Captain Paul Cuffy was an extensive trader and mariner,
sailing out of Boston, to the West Indies and Europe, by which
enterprise, he amassed an immense fortune. He was known to the
commercial world of his day, and, if not so wealthy, stood quite as
fair, and as much respected, as Captain George Laws or Commodore
Vanderbilt, the Cunards of America. Captain Cuffy went to Africa, where
he died in a few years.

James Durham, originally of Philadelphia, in 1778, at the early age of
twenty-one, was the most learned physician in New Or