5826. NEGROES, Talents.—
Nobody
wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you
exhibit, that nature has given to our black
brethren talents equal to those of the other
colors of men, and that the appearance of a
want of them is owing merely to the degraded
condition of their existence, both in Africa and
America. * * * I have taken the liberty of
sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condorcet,
Secretary of the Academy of Sciences
at Paris, and member of the Philanthropic Society,
because I considered it as a document to
which your color had a right for their justification
against the doubts which have been entertained
of them.—
To Benjamin Banneker. Washington ed. iii, 291.
Ford ed., v, 377.
(Pa.,
1791)
See Banneker.
