OF
THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR--PLEDGE FOR THE FUTURE.

I have now given the reader an imperfect sketch of nine years'
experience in freedom--three years as a common laborer on the wharves of
New Bedford, four years as a lecturer in New England, and two years of
semi-exile in Great Britain and Ireland. A single ray of light remains
to be flung upon my life during the last eight years, and my story will
be done.

A trial awaited me on my return from England to the United States, for
which I was but very imperfectly prepared. My plans for my then future
usefulness as an anti-slavery advocate were all settled. My friends in
England had resolved to raise a given sum to purchase for me a press and
printing materials; and I already saw myself wielding my pen, as well as
my voice, in the great work of renovating the public mind, and
building up a public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery
and oppression to the grave, and restore to "liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" the people with whom I had suffered, both as a{305} slave
and as a freeman. Intimation had reached my friends in Boston of what
I intended to do, before my arrival, and I was prepared to find them
favorably disposed toward my much cherished enterprise. In this I was
mistaken. I found them very earnestly opposed to the idea of my starting
a paper, and for several reasons. First, the paper was not needed;
secondly, it would interfere with my usefulness as a lecturer; thirdly,
I was better fitted to speak than to write; fourthly, the paper could
not succeed. This opposition, from a quarter so highly esteemed, and to
which I had been accustomed to look for advice and direction, caused
me not only to hesitate, but inclined me to abandon the enterprise. All
previous attempts to establish such a journal having failed, I felt
that probably I should but add another to the list of failures, and
thus contribute another proof of the mental and moral deficiencies of my
race. Very much that was said to me in respect to my imperfect literary
acquirements, I felt to be most painfully true. The unsuccessful
projectors of all the previous colored newspapers were my superiors in
point of education, and if they failed, how could I hope for success?
Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the undertaking. Some of my
English friends greatly encouraged me to go forward, and I shall never
cease to be grateful for their words of cheer and generous deeds.

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