d to the wants of his animal
nature.

And may we not, with propriety here inquire, whether our common Father,
who has declared himself to be "no respecter of persons," has endowed men
with enlarged capacities for the attainment of that knowledge and wisdom,
so requisite to the elevation of character,--for the express purpose
of seeing them made beasts of burden, and their superior faculties
prostituted by the sensuality imposed by Slavery, and to be sold as
chattels, with impunity? I tell you, nay. The day when Almighty God will
avenge the work of his own hands, hasteth greatly! Were it not so, we
might rejoice in the ignorance of the poor slaves, and pray that none of
them may ever be endowed with a superior intellect to that of the brutes
they are made to resemble. Then would the proud spirit no longer chafe,
and manhood writhe in the unbroken chain; but, like the ox to the yoke or
the horse to the harness, they might submit, without a conscious violation
of their dearest and God given rights. But we were speaking of Israel
Lewis.

A natural energy and strength of character, he had inherited; a malicious,
selfish, and consequently a deceptive disposition, his life as a slave had
undoubtedly bestowed upon him. Intellect must have scope, and when nothing
is left within its grasp but vice, can we wonder that the slave possessing
the most talent, should generally prove the greatest villain.

Uneducated as was Lewis, his quick perception, his ungoverned passions,
and his native independence, not only made him a dangerous slave, but an
unfaithful and overbearing companion. He, however, took a wife--a slave
like himself,--whose devotedness and good sense, cannot be made manifest,
more than in her willingness to leave all that was dear to her on earth,
and flee from their birth-place, she knew not whither; but confiding in
the professed love and protection of her husband, she cheerfully followed
him to the dense forest, in search of that freedom, denied them in their
native country,--submitting herself gladly to all the hardships and
fearful anxieties of a fugitive slave. What to her were horsemen, armed
with dirk and rifle! What though the trained and inhuman blood-hound bayed
upon their track! Was not he who had sworn a life-long allegiance to her
by her side! Should he be killed or retaken, what could she desire, but to
be his companion still! Slavery even, bitter as was the cup, might contain
for her _one sweet drop_, w