BLACK HISTORY NEWS JOURNAL

January 1, 1794

             JEFFERSON CALLS NEGROES INFERIOR

     Comparing them (Negroes) by their faculties of memory,
reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are
equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could be
scarcely found to be capable of tracing and comprehending the
investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, (and)
tasteless...Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Wheatley; but it
could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her
name are below the dignity of criticism...I advance it, therefore, as
a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race,
or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the
whites in the endowments both of body and mind."

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                                      BANNEKER REPLIES

     "Now Sir, I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity to
eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so
generally prevails with respect to us; and that your sentiments are 
concurrent with mine, which are, that one universal Father hath
given being to us all; and that he hath not only made us all of one
flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the
same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties;and that
however variable we may be in society or religion, however 
diversified in situation or colour, we are all of the same family and
stand in the same relation to Him...
     "Sir, suffer me to recall to your m ind that time, in which the
arms and tyranny of the British crown were exerted with every
powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude...
This, Sir, was a time when you clearly saw the injustice of a state of
slavery and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its
condition...you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine,
which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding
ages: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness.'"

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FUGITIVE SLAVES
     A GROWING
         CLASS


     A growing class of fugitives is
forming in the North.
     Slave owners have begun
offering large rewards for their
"property." and promoting
anti-fugitive legislation.
     So common are newspaper
advertisements for fugitive
slaves, that the New London 
Gazette has designed a standard
picture for the ads. A fugitive
black is pictured carrying a
bundle on his head and a stick
in his hand.
     In several states, if free blacks
are not carrying papers they may
be arrested as fugitives and sold...
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***The preceding were actual newspaper articles.