a naval officer, who
frequented the garrison, presented me, as a gift, with a small but well
selected library, which formerly belonged to a deceased son.

My experience, therefore, in the State of Virginia, is, in many
respects, quite the opposite of that which others of my class have been
called to undergo.

Could I forget how often I have stood at the foot of the market in the
city of Norfolk, and heard the cry of the auctioneer--"What will you
give for this man?"--"What for this woman?"--"What for this child?"
Could I forget that I have again and again stood upon the shores of the
Chesapeake, and, while looking out upon that splendid bay, beheld ships
and brigs carrying into unutterable misery and woe men, women and
children, victims of the most cruel slavery that ever saw the sun; could
I forget the innumerable scenes of cruelty I have witnessed, and blot
out the remembrance of the degradation, intellectual, moral and
spiritual, which everywhere surrounded me--making the country like unto
a den of dragons and pool of waters--my reminiscence of Virginia were
indeed a joy and not a sorrow.

Some things I do think of with pleasure. A grand old State is Virginia.
No where else, in America at least, has nature revealed herself on a
more munificent scale. Lofty mountains, majestic hills, beautiful
valleys, magnificent rivers cover her bosom. A genial clime warms her
heart. Her resources are exhaustless. Why should she not move on?
Execrated for ever be this wretched slavery--this disturbing force. It
kills the white man--kills the black man--kills the master--kills the
slave--kills everybody and everything. Liberty is, indeed, the first
condition of human progress, and the especial hand-maiden of all that in
human life is beautiful and true.

I attained my eighteenth year. About this time the Rev. W. H---- of New
York city visited the fortress of Monroe, and opened a select school. He
was a white man, and of a kind and benevolent nature. He could not admit
me into his school, nevertheless he took a deep interest in my welfare.
He aided my studies in such ways as he could, and, on his return to the
State of New York (he remained but a short time in Virginia), acquainted
the Honorable Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, with my desires. Mr. Smith's
sympathies were immediately touched on my behalf. He requested the Rev.
W. H---- to write to me at once, and extend to me an invitation to visit
the State of New York, enter college