the inquiry, Whence has this man this knowledge? He seems to have read and remembered nearly everything which has been written and said respecting the ability of the negro, and has condensed and arranged the whole into an admirable argument, calculated both to interest and convince."
William Lloyd Garrison said, in The Liberator, "This work has done good service, and proves its author to be a man of superior mind and cultivated ability."
Hon. Gerritt Smith, in a letter to Dr. Brown, remarked,—"I thank you for writing such a book. It will greatly benefit the colored race. Send me five copies of it."
Lewis Tappen, in his Cooper Institute speech, on the 5th of January, 1863, said,—"This is just the book for the hour; it will do more for the colored man's elevation than any work yet published."
The space allowed me for this sketch will not admit the many interesting extracts that might be given from the American press in Dr. Brown's favor as a writer and a polished reader. However, I cannot here omit the valuable testimony of Professor Hollis Read, in his ably-written work, "The Negro Problem Solved." On page 183, in writing of the intelligent colored men of the country, he says: "As a writer, I should in justice give the first place to Dr. William Wells Brown, author of 'The Black Man.'"
