The Books I
principally want for them are, Watts' Psalms and Hymns, and Bibles.
The two first they cannot be supplied with any other Way than by a
Collection, as they are not among the Books which your Society give
away. I am the rather importunate for a good Number of these, and I
cannot but observe, that the Negroes, above all the Human Species that
I ever knew, have an Ear for Musick, and a kind of extatic Delight in
Psalmody; and there are no Books they learn so soon, or take so much
Pleasure in as those used in that heavenly Part of divine Worship.
Some Gentlemen in London were pleased to make me a private Present of
these Books for their Use, and from the Reception they met with, and
their Eagerness for more, I can easily foresee, how acceptable and
useful a larger Number would be among them. Indeed, Nothing would be a
greater Inducement to their Industry to learn to read, than the Hope
of such a Present; which they would consider, both as a Help, and a
Reward for their Diligence"....--_Fawcett's Address to the Christian
Negroes in Virginia_, etc., pp. 33. 34. 35. 36, 37. 38.
EXTRACT FROM JONATHAN BOUCHER'S "A VIEW OF THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES
OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"(1763)
"If ever these colonies, now filled with slaves, be improved to their
utmost capacity, an essential part of the improvement must be the
abolition of slavery.
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