All previous attempts to establish such a journal having failed, I felt that probably I should but add another to the list of failures, and thus contribute another proof of the mental and moral deficiencies of my race.

Very much that was said to me in respect to my imperfect literary acquirements, I felt to be most painfully true.

The unsuccessful projectors of all the previous colored newspapers were my superiors in point of education, and if they failed, how could I hope for success?
Yet I did hope for success, and persisted in the undertaking.

Some of my English friends greatly encouraged me to go forward, and I shall never cease to be grateful for their words of cheer and generous deeds.
I can easily pardon those who have denounced me as ambitious and presumptuous, in view of my persistence in this enterprise.

I was but nine years from slavery.