Without having received a day's schooling in his life, Henry Boyd
is well read in history, has an extensive and accurate knowledge of
geography, is an excellent arithmetician, and is remarkable for his
morality, generosity, and all those traits which mark a noble character.
QUAMINO BUCCAN,
A PIOUS METHODIST.
Quamino was born in the vicinity of New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1762,
and was a slave. In his ninth year he was hired for a term of years
to a person named Schenk, who employed him as a house-servant, and
who soon after removing to Poughkeepsie, New York, took the lad with
him. The unsettled state of the country during the Revolutionary War,
prevented communication with his old master, and Quamino had no hope of
seeing his former friends; but in his eightieth year he was informed
that his master had sent for him. On his return to New Jersey his old
associates had so grown that he felt like a stranger in his old home.
When nearing the age of manhood he was steady in attending religious
meetings, walking several miles through all kinds of weather. His own
account of his motive in going was that he "liked to have the name of
being a good boy." But whatever his motive in going, the meetings were
a blessing to him. One Sabbath evening on reaching home he went to
the barn, where, after earnest exercise in prayer, he slept upon the
straw. Very early in the morning he went into the field to work, first
kneeling by the fence. Being in great distress, the gracious words of
the Saviour deeply impressed him: "_Let not your heart be troubled. Ye
believe in God, believe also in Me._" Yielding his whole heart and all
his powers to Him who was calling for the sacrifice, he felt that he
received the unspeakable gift.
He went to his work; "and oh," said he, "everything was glorious around
me--everything seemed to be praising God."
The change which had come over the boy was conspicuous to all around
him; he was quiet and diligent in attention to all his duties. From
this time Quamino understood the nature of that peace "which passeth
all understanding." On the Sabbath he would get the carriage ready,
and when his master had started he would walk several miles across the
fields to the Methodist meeting, but always left before the conclusion
of the services, as, if not at home in time to take the horses when the
family arrived, he was sure to be found fault with, if not punished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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