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JACOB HODGES.
at this time, a friend on earth to counse'
or to care for him. There were then no
Sabbath-schools, nor such public provi-
si >n for the instruction of the poor, as
is now found in almost every commu¬
nity. The child of ignorance and pover¬
ty, wearing his sable complexion, in a
crowded population, was ordinarily passed
by with utter neglect, as the beast that
per4sheth. It is not known that a solitary
lesion of useful instruction was ever given
to ^.his African child.
After spending ten years in his native
place, exposed to all the evils of his
wretched parentage, Jacob was shipped
oh board the schooner Lydia, of Philadel¬
phia, in the West India trade, in the ca¬
pacity of waiting boy. In this situation,
well calculated to perpetuate his igno¬
rance and to confirm him in every vicious
propensity, and farther removed than ever
from the means of education and moral
improvement, he soon became distin¬
guished for every species of wickedness
that his circumstances allowed Beina