CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.
FROM the very first time the Afro-American had a right to exercise his freedom in this country, his course with regard to church, state and society, has been followed with more than ordinary zeal, and his progress in the various pursuits undertaken by him have been noted with an exacting eye, characteristic of the most watchful. Why he has been watched in this peculiar way is not hard to be seen when the circumstances surrounding his life has been taken into consideration. When one remembers that he was brought from Africa only two centuries ago, an uncivilized and barbarous creature, and settled in a country where he was deprived the privileges of becoming even properly civilized; when one remembers that during this aforesaid period he had not one iota of opportunity to understand the most unpretentious business act in state or church; when one remembers that he was not allowed, (if he desired,) to think of a business transaction in any of its ramifications, were they ever so small; when it is remembered that the whole world was closed against him for centuries, save that of labor in the field of his owner; and when it is remembered that he faced the
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