too heavy, I had to give it up. Besides, I had no patience with them; they
abounded in mis-statements respecting the free coloured people. Why even
here in the slave states--in the cities of Savanah and Charleston--they are
much better situated than he describes them to be in New York; and since
they can and do prosper here, where they have such tremendous difficulties
to encounter, I know they cannot be in the condition he paints, in a state
where they are relieved from many of the oppressions they labour under
here. And, on questioning him on the subject, I found he was entirely
unacquainted with coloured people; profoundly ignorant as to the real facts
of their case. He had never been within a coloured church or school; did
not even know that they had a literary society amongst them. Positively, I,
living down here in Georgia, knew more about the character and condition of
the coloured people of the Northern States, than he who lived right in the
midst of them. Would you believe that beyond their laundress and a drunken
negro that they occasionally employed to do odd jobs for them, they were
actually unacquainted with any coloured people: and how unjust was it for
him to form his opinion respecting a class numbering over twenty thousand
in his own state, from the two individuals I have mentioned and the negro
loafers he occasionally saw in the streets."

"It is truly unfortunate," rejoined Mr. Winston, "for he covers his
prejudices with such a pretended regard for the coloured people, that a
person would be the more readily led to believe his statements respecting
them to be correct; and he is really so positive about it, and apparently
go deaf to all argument that I did not discuss the subject with him to any
extent; he was so very kind to me that I did not want to run a tilt against
his favourite opinions."

"You wrote me he gave you letters to Philadelphia; was there one amongst
them to the Mortons?"