y are equal to the
whites; in reason much inferiour. As I think one could scarcely be found
capable of tracing, and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and
that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous. It would be
unfair to follow them to Africa for this investigation. We will consider
them here, on the same stage with the whites. And where the facts are not
apocryphal on which a judgment is to be formed, it will be right to make
allowances for the difference of condition, of conversation, and of the
sphere in which they move. Many millions of them have been brought to, and
born in America. Most of them indeed have been confined to tillage, to
their own homes, and their own society; yet many have been so situate,
that they might have availed themselves of the conversation of their
masters; many have been brought up to the handicraft arts, and from that
circumstance have always been associated with the whites; some have been
liberally educated, and all have lived in countries where the arts and
sciences are cultivated to a considerable degree, and have had before
their eyes samples of the best work from abroad. The Indians with no
advantages of this kind, will often carve figures on their pipes, not
destitute of merit and design. They will crayon out an animal, a plant, or
a country, so as to prove the existence of a germe in their minds, which
only wants cultivation. They astonish you with strokes of the most
sublime oratory, such as prove their reason and sentiment strong, their
imagination glowing and elevated; but never yet could I find a black, that
had uttered a thought above the level of plain narration[Footnote: "Sleep
hab no massa," was the answer of a sleepy negro, who was told that his
massa called him.--See Edward's History of Jamaica, 2d Vol.]; never see
even an elementary trait of painting, or sculpture. In music they are more
generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune, and time;
and they have been found capable of imagining a small catch[Footnote: "The
instrument proper to them is the _banjore_, which they brought here
from Africa, and which is the origin of the guitar, it's chords being
precisely the four lower chords of that instrument." J---- N.]. Whether
they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive run of melody,
or of complicated harmony[Footnote: From this circumstance, I conceive our
author's _catch_ was improperly so called.], is yet to be proved.