laborers in our large towns. Though generally poor, they are seldom in circumstances of extreme want; and it is a rare thing to see them begging in the streets. Yet, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wrenched from their hard earnings, to pay for their own persons! * (6.) Cleanliness. Vassa says, in reference to his native land, 'Our cleanliness on all occasions is extreme. This necessary habit of decency was with us a matter of religion, and therefore we had many purifications and washings.' And, so far as my observation has extended, I have noticed a remarkable attention to the cleanliness of their dwellings, among the free people of color, often in contrast with the same class of people, among the whites.

(7.) Good nature--Humanity--Kindness-Hospitality. All unprejudiced authors,' says Gregoire, who speak of negroes, do justice to their natural disposition and virtues.' Proyart says the natives of the interior of Africa are humane, obliging, and hospitable. Golberry says he found among them 'men of probity, filial, conjugal, and paternal affection, who know all the energies and refinements of virtue, because they observe, more

* See Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention, 1835.

than we, the dictates of nature, and know how to sacrifice personal interest to the ties of friendship.' Adanson, who visited Senegal, in 1754, says he found the natives sociable, obliging, humane, and hospitable. Mungo Park, in the bosom of Africa, was ready to perish with hunger. A native woman meets him, invites him to her hut, and treats him in the most hospitable manner. The women of the family were assembled; and part of the night was passed in spinning cotton, and singing extempore songs, to amuse the white man. One of these songs, which exhibits the kindness and sympathy of their feelings in a strain of simple pathos, he has furnished us:

Joseph Rachel, a free colored man of Barbadoes, became rich by trade, and consecrated all his fortune to objects of benevolence. The unfortunate, whatever his color, had a claim upon his goodness, He gave to the poor, lent to those who could make no return, visited prisoners, and endeavored to reform the guilty. He died at

Bridgetown, in 1758, equally lamented by blacks and whites.'

Jasmin Thoumazeau was born in Africa. He became a slave in St. Domingo; but afterwards obtained his freedom, married a woman of the Gold Coast, and established a hospital at the Cape for his poor colored brethren. More than forty years, he and his wife devoted themselves to the relief of their distresses.

It may be objected, that the Africans enslave their brethren, and sell them to the slave dealers; and therefore kindness and humanity cannot belong to their character. But, let us apply the same rule to the whites, and see what claim we should have upon these virtues. Unless it can be proved that selling one's own color is a greater mark of barbarity than the same crime, when committed upon another color, we shall certainly gain nothing by the comparison. The trade in slaves, on the coast of Africa, is carried on at the instigation of white men. 'When a trader wants slaves,' says Vassa, he applies to a chief for them, and tempts him with his wares. It is not extraordinary, if, on this occasion, he yields to the temptation with as little firmness, and accepts the price of his fellow creatures' liberty, with as little reluctance as the enlightened merchant. Accordingly,

he falls on his neighbors, and a desperate battle ensues. If he prevails and takes prisoners, he gratifies his avarice by selling them; but if his party be vanquished, and he falls into the hands of the enemy, he is put to death; and no ransom can save him, though all other priseners may be redeemed. Those who are not sold or redeemed are kept as slaves. But how different is their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies! With us, they do no more work than other members of the community, even their masters; their food, clothing, and lodging, are nearly the same as the rest of the family, except that they are not permitted to eat with those who are free born. There is scarcely any other difference between them, than a superior degrec of importance which the head of a family possesses, and the authority which he exercises over every part of his household. Some of these slaves have even slaves under them, as their own property, and for their own use.' How different this from American slavery, by which one man becomes the absolute property of another, to be used for his benefit, without any regard for his own rights or happiness! And how much more of the milk of human kindness reigns in the breast of the kidnapper in America, than the kidnapper in Africa? And

how much more humane is the practice which converts the national capital into a mart for the sale of unoffending human beings, than that which exposes a band of men-stealers to the doom of vassalage? The public sentiment, which condemns the chief of a band of kidnappers to death, and his comrades to slavery, is certainly as good as the public sentiment on the same subject, in this land of light and liberty. The inhumanity and cruelty of American kidnappers, soul-drivers, and slaveholders, might be urged to show that white men are destitute of kindness and humanity, with as much propriety as the existence of slavery and the slave-trade in Africa can be urged against the general character of the blacks. How strangely does prejudice pervert the moral feelings of men! What horror is felt towards those barbarous African outlaws, who sell their own countrymen into hopeless bondage! But a white American may be a noblehearted, generous, humane, and hospitable man, though, forsooth, he sell his own children to be chained and driven like brutes to the soulmarket!

(8.) Gratitude. No trait of character is more conspicuous in the African than this. If any one requires proof of it, let him go among the colored people, and treat them kindly, and he will be satis