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Irrouba.
Duballon gives the following account of a woman of colour, in Jamaica, in 1802.

1. "Let us visit the old woman that has seen her hundredth year," says one of the company; and we advanced to the door of a little hut, where an old negress of Senegal appeared, so enfeebled that she bent forward and obliged to lean against the side of her hut, to receive the company assembled at the door; she was also dull of hearing, but her eye was still lively. Every thing around her showed that she was destitute and suffering. She has scarcely rags enough to cover her, and had not fire sufficient to give warmth, at a season when the cold is sensibly felt by the aged, and more particularly by those of her country. We found her broiling a little rice and water for her supper, for she did not receive that regular subsistance from her master, which her great age and former services required. She was besides alone and neglected, her exhausted frame was more indebted to nature than her master.
2. The reader ought to know that independently of her long service, this woman had formerly nourished, with her milk, two white children, whom she had seen arrive at complete growth, and whom she afterward followed to the tomb; and these were the brothers of one of the masters then present. The old woman perceived him and called him by name; she spoke with an air of kindness truly affecting, and said, "When wilt thou repair the roof of my hut?" It was almost uncovered, and the rain poured freely. He raised his eyes towards it; it was not higher than the hand cough reach: "I shall think of it," said he. "Thou wilt think of it! thou always tellest me so, but nothing is ever done.
3. "Hast thou not thy children (two negroes of the work-shop, her grand-children,) who could mend the hut; art thou not their master, and art thou not thyself my son? Come, said she, taking him by the arm, come into the cabin, and see for thyself these openings: have pity, then, my son, on the old Irrouba, and repair at least that part of the roof which is above my bed, it is all I ask, and the Good Being will bless thee." And what was her bed? Alas! three boards put together. and on which lay a bundle of parasite plant of the country. — "The roof of thy hut is almost uncovered; the sleet and the rain beat against thy miserable bed; thy master sees all this, and yet has no compassion for thee, poor Irrouba" —says the visitor.

1. BELINDA, born in a pleasant and fertile part of Africa, was brought from thence to America, when she was about twelve years of age, and solf for a slave. In 1782, she presented a petition to the Legislature of Massachusetts. 
2. "Although I have, says she, been servant to a colonel forty years, my labours have not procured me any comfort: I have not yet enjoyed the benefits of creation. With my poor daughter, I fear I shall pass the remainder of my days in slavery and misery. For her and for myself, I beg freedom." 
3. The authors of the American Museum have preserved this petition, written without art, but dictated by the eloquence of grief, and therefore more calculated to move the heart to pity.

An Extract of a letter from S. G. —Alexandria, 1809.

1. At Georgetown, I had the company of several persons, among whom was a physician, who had but lately removed to that place; he appears to be of a sensible and tender spirit. He mentioned a circumstance of which he was an eye witness: and it being on a subject that had nearly interested my feelings

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-19 18:48:18