18 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



irons two and two together. Reader, bring the matter home, and con- 

 sider whether any situation in hfe can be more completely miserable 

 than that of those distressed captives. When we reflect that each 

 individual of this number had some tender attachment which was broken 

 by this cruel separation; some parent or wife; . . . some infant or 

 aged parent. . . . 



. . . Do we indeed believe the truth declared in the Gospel .'' Are we 

 persuaded that the threatenings, as well as the promises therein con- 

 tained, will have their accomplishment.? If indeed we do, must we not 

 tremble to think what a load of guilt lies upon our nation generally and 

 individually, so far as we in any degree abet or countenance this 

 aggraved iniquity.? "^ 



To Benezet's words should be added those of John Bartram, as 

 reported by Crevecoeur: 



Though our erroneous prejudices and opinions, once induced us to look 

 upon them [Negroes] as fit only for slavery ... yet of late, in con- 

 sequence of the remonstrances of several Friends, and of the good books 

 they have published on that subject, our society treats them very dif- 

 ferently. With us they are now free. . . . Our society treats them now 

 as the companions of our labours; and by this management, as well as 

 by means of the education we have given them, they are in general 

 become a new set of beings.^* 



But Crevecoeur' s report of John Bartram' s words becomes even 

 more significant in the French version of his Letters, which dif- 

 fers materially from the English version. Here John Bartram 

 actually refers to Benezet's services to the cause of the liberation 

 of the Negro among the Quakers. Among other things not in 

 the English edition, Bartram is reported as saying to his visitor: 



II y a plus de quarante ans que quelques membres de notre societe 

 commencerent a les emanciper. Antoine Benezet publia les livres a ce 

 sujet, & parcourut tout le Continent, en exhortant a cette action genereuse 

 les amis; & depuis cette epoques, nous avons trouve qu'on bon exemple, 

 des avis doux & des principes de religion, pouvoient sels les conduire 

 a la subordination, la sobriete & a I'amour du travail. ^^ 



Among the influences upon William Bartram that of the 



*'^ A Library of American Literature. Stedman and Hutchinson. II, 490-492. 



®* Letters, pp. 192-193. Crevecoeur's visit at Bartram's took place in 1769: 

 The French editor of the Letters dates the supposed Russian's letter: '" Phila- 

 delphie, 12 Octobre, 1769." 



*^ Lettres d'un Cultivateur Americain. A. Maestricht, chez J. E. Dufour & 

 Phil. Roux. Imprimeurs-Libraires associes. 1785. Tome Premier, 170. 



