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79 passed onto the teacher of the next step or grade, who in his turn goes through the same process; till at last the child at the end of three years, for each grade requires six months, leaves the school, having passed through all it professes to teach, & generally having acquired it all thoroughly.

    As I am not one of those who believe that the intellect

of the longest civilized & most highly cultivated race in the world is no better than that of a race of which no branch has ever been civilized, or cultivated in any way or degree; or to put it in another way that those who have given greater proofs of intelligence than any other race of men are (which is a contradiction in terms) on a level with those who have never given any proof whatever of intelligence, I carefully notice every thing that appears in any way to militate against my side of the question. For this reason I must mention that I was taken by surprise at the quickness of attainments of these four hundred coloured children. I never saw a school in England in which so much readiness was shown in answering questions as to the meaning of words that occurred in the reading lesson, & questions as to the meaning of what had been read. I must, however, remark that this may perhaps have been owing to the excellence of the Teachers, who at present are chiefly enthusiasts in the cause of the Negro from New England; & to this method of grading the schools. Of course the children were not readier, or better taught than white children are in America. And here, besides, comes? in the doubt? whether the intellectual development of this race, as all travellers in Africa assert, does not stop at the age of fourteen. There was in connexion with these schools one for adult Negro scholars, which may be regarded as to some extent a contradiction of this opinion, for I will not call it fact.