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JACOB HODGES.
1
moral influence, he had become confirmed
on land in all the habits of vice contracted
upon the sea.
Notwithstanding all this ignorance, vice
and degradation, there was in Jacob
Hodges a native dignity and a noble car¬
riage, which clearly illustrated traits of
mind which cultivation and better circum¬
stances of life would have developed to
the honour of our common humanity.
Though strikingly African, every feature
and movement of Jacob showed that he
was originally fitted for a higher and bet¬
ter character, and but for the disadvan¬
tages of his birth, and the utter neglect
of his early education, he might have
been a man indeed.
How long Jacob lived in the county of
Orange is not known; but an uncommon
and painful occurrence is connected with
his history here, which changed the whole
aspect of his subsequent life.
In the town of Warwick, about seven
miles from the village of Goshen, there
resided a man by tht name of Jennings,