"The negroes on the plantation, including house-servants and children,
amounted to a hundred; of whom the average price being respectively seventy
pounds, made them aggregately worth seven thousand to their possessor.
"Two families lived in one hut, and such was their unconquerable propensity
to steal, that they pilfered from each other. I have heard masters lament
this defect in their negroes. But what else can be expected from man in so
degraded a condition, that among the ancients the same word implied both a
slave and a thief.
"Since the introduction of the culture of cotton in the State of South
Carolina, the race of negroes has increased. Both men and women work in the
field, and the labour of the rice plantation formerly prevented the
pregnant negroes from bringing forth a long-lived offspring. It may be
established as a maxim that on a plantation where there are many children,
the work has been moderate. . . .
"Of genius in negroes many instances may be recorded. It is true that Mr.
Jefferson has pronounced the Poems of Phillis Wheatley, below the dignity
of criticism, and it is seldom safe to differ in judgment from the author
of Notes on Virginia. But her conceptions are often lofty, and her
versification often surpasses with unexpected refinement. Ladd, the
Carolina poet, in enumerating the bards of his country, dwells with
encomium on "Wheatley's polished verse"; nor is his praise undeserved, for
often it will be found to glide in the stream of melody. Her lines on
Imagination have been quoted with rapture by Imley of Kentucky, and
Steadman the Guinea Traveler; but I have ever thought her happiest
production the Goliath of Gath.
"Of Ignatius Sancho, Mr. Jefferson also speaks neglectingly; and remarks,
that he substitutes sentiment for argumentation. But I know not that
argumentation is required in a familiar epistle; and Sancho, I believe, has
only published his correspondence." --John Davis, "_Travels of four years
and a half in the United States of America during 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801,
1802_," p. 86.