_James Derham_, originally a slave at Philadelphia, was sold to a physician, who employed him in compounding drugs; he was afterward sold to a surgeon, and finally to Doctor Robert Dove, of New-Orleans. In 1788, at the age of twenty-one, he became the most distinguished physician in that city, and was able to talk with French, Spanish, and English, in their own languages. Doctor Rush says, "I conversed with him on medicine, and found him very learned. I thought I could give him information concerning the treatment of diseases; but I learned from him more than he could expect from me." _Thomas Fuller_, an African residing in Virginia, did not know how to read or write, but had great facility in arithmetical calculations. He was once asked, how many seconds has an individual lived when he is seventy years, seven months, and seven days old? In a minute and a half he answered the question. One of the company took a pen, and after a long calculation, said Fuller had made the sum too large. "No," replied the negro, "the error is on your side. You did not calculate the leap years." These facts are mentioned in a letter from Doctor Rush, published in the fifth volume of the American Museum. In 1788, _Othello_, a negro, published at Baltimore an Essay against Slavery. Addressing white men, he says, "Is not your conduct, compared with your principles, a sacrilegious irony? When you dare to talk of civilization and the gospel, you pronounce your own anathema. In you the superiority of power produces nothing but a superiority of brutality and barbarism. Your fine political systems are sullied by the outrages committed against human nature and the divine majesty." _Olandad Equiano_, better known by the name of Gustavus Vasa, was stolen in Africa, at twelve years old, together with his sister. They were torn from each other; and the brother, after a horrible passage in a slave-ship, was sold at Barbadoes. Being purchased by a lieutenant, he accompanied his new master to England, Guernsey, and the siege of Louisbourg. He afterwards experienced great changes of fortune, and made voyages to various parts of Europe and America. In all his wanderings, he cherished an earnest desire for freedom. He hoped to obtain his liberty by faithfulness and zeal in his master's service; but finding avarice stronger than benevolence, he began trade with a capital of three pence, and by rigid economy was at last able to purchase--_his own body and soul_; this, however, was not effected, until he had endured much oppression and insult. He was several times shipwrecked, and finally, after thirty years of vicissitude and suffering, he settled in London and published his Memoirs. The book is said to be written with all the simplicity, and something of the roughness, of uneducated nature. He gives a _naive_ description of his terror at an earthquake, his surprise when he first saw snow, a picture, a watch, and a quadrant.