ere there are many children,
the work has been moderate. . . .

"Of genius in negroes many instances may be recorded. It is true that Mr.
Jefferson has pronounced the Poems of Phillis Wheatley, below the dignity
of criticism, and it is seldom safe to differ in judgment from the author
of Notes on Virginia. But her conceptions are often lofty, and her
versification often surpasses with unexpected refinement. Ladd, the
Carolina poet, in enumerating the bards of his country, dwells with
encomium on "Wheatley's polished verse"; nor is his praise undeserved, for
often it will be found to glide in the stream of melody. Her lines on
Imagination have been quoted with rapture by Imley of Kentucky, and
Steadman the Guinea Traveler; but I have ever thought her happiest
production the Goliath of Gath.

"Of Ignatius Sancho, Mr. Jefferson also speaks neglectingly; and remarks,
that he substitutes sentiment for argumentation. But I know not that
argumentation is required in a familiar epistle; and Sancho, I believe, has
only published his correspondence." --John Davis, "_Travels of four years
and a half in the United States of America during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801,
1802_," p. 86.

OBSERVATIONS OF ROBERT SUTCLIFF

"I had the curiosity to look into some of their little habitations; but all
that I examined were wretched in the extreme and far inferior to many
Indian cottages I have seen.

"I slept at C. A.'s and this morning set out for Fredericksburg, being
accompanied by his young man, our road lying through the woods the greater
part of the way. At the place where we dined, we were waited on by two
mulatto girls, whose only clothing appeared to be loose garments of cotton
and woollen cloth, girt round the waist with a small cord. I had observed
that this was the common dress of the working female negroes in the fields;
but when engaged in business in the house it seemed hardly sufficient to
cover them. In the yard, I observed a number of slaves engaged in the
management of a still, employed in making spirits from cider. Here again I
had the curiosity to look into some of the negro huts, which like those I
had seen, presented little else but dirt and rags.

"We came to Fredericksburg and lodged at Fisher's Tavern. The next morning
I was waked early by the cries of a poor negro, who was undergoing a severe
correction, previously to his going to work. On taking a walk on the banks
of the Rappahannock, the river on which the t