Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/477

 all classes: even the old negro-hating whites of the "palmetto" state acknowledge the ability and many manly virtues of Francis L. Cardozo.

EDMONIA LEWIS.

Miss Lewis, the colored American artist, is of mingled Indian and African descent. Her mother was one of the Chippewa tribe, and her father a full-blooded African. Both her parents died young, leaving the orphan girl and her only brother to be brought up by the Indians. Here, as may well be imagined, her opportunities for education were meagre enough.

Edmonia Lewis is below the medium height; her complexion and features betray her African origin; her hair is more of the Indian type, black, straight, and abundant. Her head is well balanced, exhibiting a large and well-developed brain. Although brought up in the wilderness, she spent some time at Oberlin College, and has a good education.

Her manners are childlike and simple, and most winning and pleasing. She has the proud spirit of her Indian ancestor, and if she has more of the African in her personal appearance, she has more of the Indian in her character. On her first visit to Boston, she saw a statue of Benjamin Franklin. It filled her with amazement and delight. She did not know by what name to call "the stone image," but she felt within her the stir of new powers.

"I, too, can make a stone man," she said to herself; and at once she went to visit William Lloyd Garrison,