Page:Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave.djvu/15

Rh be unlocked to the African. Give him free access to the treasures of knowledge. Make him acquainted with the wealth of his own spirit—his own strength—and his own rights—and the white man would strive to bind him as vainly as the Philistines strove against Sampson. Even now, in his day of darkness, how often has he made the hearts of his keepers to quail, and their cheeks to blanch with fear, when they have looked on their wives and little ones, and heard the cry of vengeance fill their plantations with dismay.

But even were the thrall of bondage broken, the hapless victim of slavery would find himself, in but too many cases, we fear, fettered by prejudice—despised by the proud—insulted by the scornful. Such has been another of the poisonous operations of slavery on public sentiment. But we are not about to weary the reader with the horrors of this system. It will be our humble endeavor, simply to present an unvarnished record of African genius, sustained by Christian benevolence, and guided by Christian faith.

We will not, however, conclude our remarks, without reference to that spirit of the present time which manifestly is moving abroad on the face of society, for the amelioration of the condition, and the development of the capacity of the African, of every class. We are glad to perceive that serious and strenous efforts are being made for the benefit