[348] All writers I have seen on this subject--and I think I have seen all--leave the impression that Miss Wheatley's poems were first published in London. This is not true. The first published poems from her pen were issued in Boston in 1770. But it was a mere pamphlet edition, and has long since perished. [349] All the historians but Sparks omit the given name of Peters. It was John. [350] The date usually given for her death is 1780, while her age is fixed at twenty-six. The best authority gives the dates above, and I think they are correct. [351] "Her correspondence was sought, and it extended to persons of distinction even in England, among whom may be named the Countess of Huntingdon, Whitefield, and the Earl of Dartmouth."--SPARKS'S _Washington_, vol. iii. p. 298, note. [352] Sparks's Washington, vol iii. p. 299, note. [353] This destroys the last hope I have nursed for nearly six years that the poem might yet come to light. Somehow I had overlooked this note. [354] Sparks's Washington, vol iii. p. 288. [355] Ibid., vol. iii. pp. 297, 298. [356] Armistead's A Tribute to the Negro, pp. 460, 461. [357] Douglass, vol. ii. p. 345, note. [358] Hildreth, vol. ii. p. 426. [359] Pearce _vs._ Lisle, Ambler, 76. [360] It may sound strangely in the ears of some friends and admirers of the gifted John Adams to hear now, after the lapse of many years, what he had to say of the position Otis took. His mild views on slavery were as deserving of scrutiny as those of the elder Quincy. Mr. Adams says: "Nor were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a Quaker in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, ever asserted the rights of negroes in stronger terms. Young as I was, and ignorant as I was, I shuddered at the doctrine he taught; and I have all my lifetime shuddered, and still shudder, at the consequences that may be drawn from such premises. Shall we say, that the rights of masters and servants clash, and can be decided only by force? I adore the idea of gradual abolitions! But who shall decide how fast or how slowly these abolitions shall be made?" [361] Hildreth, vol. ii. pp. 564, 565. [362] Coffin says, "In October of 1773, an action was brought against Richard Greenleaf, of Newburyport, by Caesar [Hendrick], a colored man, whom he claimed as his slave, for holding him in bondage. He laid the damages at fifty pounds. The council for the plaintiff, in whose favor the jury brought in their verdict and awarded him eighteen pounds' damages and costs, was John Lowell, Esq., afterward Judge Lowell. This case excited much interest, as it was the first, if not the only one of the kind, that ever occurred in the county." [363] Hildreth, vol. ii, pp. 550, 551. [364] Drake, p. 729, note. [365] I use the English spelling,--Sommersett. [366] Hildreth, vol. ii. p. 567. [367] Bancroft, 12th ed. vol. iii. p. 412. [368] Ancient Charters and Laws of Mass., pp. 745, 746.