America And Other Poems

INTRODUCTION."Another book of poetry," exclaims the reader; "and that, too, by one of the proscribed race, -whose lot has been ignorance and servitude." It is even so: and this little Yolnroe is presented to the public in the full confidence that it will be read and appreciated, when the circumstances of its origin are known. Its merits as a literary production, we leave to be decided upon by the kind judgment of the American people. "We do not claim that the poetry is of the highest order: but we do claim that it would be creditable to authors of greater pretensions than the humble colored man, who hath wrought it out amid the daily and incessant toil necessary for the maintenance of a family, who are dependent upon the labor of his hands for support. There is in it the fire of a genius which, under more favored circumstances, would have soared high, aud obtained no mean place in the world's estimation. There is the voice of true poesy speaking in it, which, though in the rougTable of