Page:Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave.djvu/129

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preface.
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humman nature," and was to remain there if he would not consent to go to Liberia.

Whether the poems sold for sufficient to buy this man, so dangerous to "Southern institutions," and export him, I have not been able to ascertain. Perhaps George is still a slave!

L. C.G.

Philadelphia, September, 1837.




Immediately after the present, edition was issued, the following letter was put into my hands,

Publisher.
Washington, September 12th, 1837.

Dear Sir:—I have inquired of Mr. Gales, agreeably to your request, to ascertain the present condition of George M. Horton. He informs me that he is still the slave of James Horton of Chatham County, and is employed as a servant at Chapel Hill, the seat of the University of North Carolina. It is understood by Mr. G. that he did not derive much pecuniary profit from the publication of his poems; and that, since the death of his patron, the late Dr. Caldwell, President of the University, he has attended to other occupations.

I am,
Yours truly,
Mr. Joshua Coffin.