erward became a lawyer, well known by the
name of Doctor Peter. He was in the habit of pleading causes for his
brethren before the tribunals of justice, and gained both reputation and
fortune by his practice. Phillis had been flattered and indulged from
her earliest childhood; and, like many literary women in old times, she
acquired something of contempt for domestic occupations. This is said to
have produced unhappiness between her and her husband. She died in 1780.

Mr. Wilberforce, (on whom may the blessing of God rest for ever!) aided
by several benevolent individuals, established a seminary for colored
people at Clapham, a few leagues from London. The first scholars were
twenty-one young negroes, sent by the Governor of Sierra Leone. The Abbe
Gregoire says, "I visited this establishment in 1802, to examine the
progress of the scholars; and I found there existed no difference
between them and European children, except that of color. The same
observation has been made, first at Paris, in the ancient college of La
Marche, where Coesnon, professor of the University, taught a number of
colored boys. Many members of the National Institute, who have carefully
examined this college, and watched the progress of the scholars in their
particular classes, and public exercises, will testify to the truth of
my assertion."

Correa de Serra, the learned Secretary of the Academy at Portugal,
informs us that several negroes have been able lawyers, preachers, and
professors.

In the Southern States, the small black children are proverbially
brighter and more forward than white ones of the same age. Repartees,
by no means indicative of stupidity, have sometimes been made by
negroes. A slave was suddenly roused with the exclamation, "Why don't
you wake, when your master calls!" The negro answered, "_Sleep has
no master._"

On a public day the New-England Museum, in Boston, was thronged with
visiters to see the representation of the Salem murder. Some colored
women being jostled back by a crowd of white people, expostulated thus:
"Don't you know it is always proper to let the _mourners_ walk first?"
It argues some degree of philosophy to be able to indulge wit at the
expense of what is, most unjustly, considered a degradation. Public
prejudice shamefully fetters these people; and it has been wisely said,
"If we cannot _break_ our chains, the next best thing we can do, is to
_play_ with them."[AI]

[Footnote AI: In a beautiful litt