But an objection will be made here, that the two persons whom we have particularized by name, are prodigies, and that if we were to live for many years, we should scarcely meet with two other Africans of the same description. But we reply, that considering their situation as before described, two persons, above mediocrity in the literary way, are as many as can be expected within a certain period of years; and farther, that if these are prodigies, they are only such prodigies as every day would produce, if they had the same opportunities of acquiring knowledge as other people, and the same expectations in life to excite their genius. This has been constantly and solemnly asserted by the pious Benezet[071], whom we have mentioned before, as having devoted a considerable part of his time to their instruction. This great man, for we cannot but mention him with veneration, had a better opportunity of knowing them than any person whatever, and he always uniformly declared, that he could never find a difference between their capacities and those of other people; that they were as capable of reasoning as any individual Europeans; that they were as capable of the highest intellectual attainments; in short, that their abilities were equal, and that they only wanted to be equally cultivated, to afford specimens of as fine productions. Thus then does it appear from the testimony of this venerable man, whose authority is sufficient of itself to silence all objections against African capacity, and from the instances that have been produced, and the observations that have been made on the occasion, that if the minds of the Africans were unbroken by slavery; if they had the same expectations in life as other people, and the same opportunities of improvement, they would be equal; in all the various branches of science, to the Europeans, and that the argument that states them "to be an inferiour link of the chain of nature, and designed for servitude," as far as it depends on the _inferiority of their capacities_, is wholly malevolent and false[072]. * * * * * FOOTNOTES [Footnote 069: Phillis Wheatley, negro slave to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston, in New-England.] [Footnote 070: Lest it should be doubted whether these Poems are genuine, we shall transcribe the names of those, who signed a certificate of their authenticity. His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, Governor. The Honourable Andrew Oliver, Lieutenant Governor. The Hon. Thomas Hubbard The Hon. John Erving The Hon. James Pitts The Hon. Harrison Gray The Hon. James Bowdoin John Hancock, Esq. Joseph Green, Esq. Richard Carey, Esq. The Rev. Cha. Chauncy, D.D. The Rev. Mather Byles, D.D. The Rev. Ed. Pemberton, D.D. The Rev. Andrew Elliot, D.D. The Rev. Sam. Cooper, D.D. The Rev. Samuel Mather The Rev. John Moorhead Mr. John Wheatley, her Master. ] [Footnote 071: In the Preface.]