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.