He saw that they were not essentially unlike other races--that there was nothing morally or intellectually peculiar about them, and that the evil or the good which they manifested was the common property of mankind in similar circumstances.

He forthwith became their brave defender against the common slanders of the times.

"There is a prevalent disposition among all classes to traduce the habits and morals of our free blacks," he remarked in the _Genius_.

"The most scandalous exaggerations in regard to their condition are circulated by a thousand mischievous tongues, and no reproach seems to them too deep or unmerited.

Vile and malignant indeed is this practice, and culpable are they who follow it.