black children as well as white ; but I have not heard of
more than three or four who have taken advantage of this
privilege ; though the number of blacks in Boston probably
exceeds one thousand. It is a very easy thing for the child-
ren of the poorest families here to acquire a common educa-
tion, not only at publick, but even at private schools. The
means are supplied by the manufactories of wool-cards.
Most of the labour is done by machinery ; but the sticking
of the wires in leather is done by hand, and is an employ-
ment for children. The school-mistresses take the materials
from the manufactories, and in the intervals of reading, set
the children to work ; which, if they are diligent, pays for
their schooling, and perhaps yields some little profit to the
mistress. In this mode, the children of blacks, as well as
whites, may be initiated in the first rudiments of learning,
and at the same time acquire a habit of industry. No
schools are set up by the community for the blacks exclusive-
ly ; though sometimes they have had instructors of their own
colour, and at their own expense.

In age, decrepitude, or insanity, they have the benefit of
the laws, which oblige every town to provide for the poor
and infirm. In the alms-house of this town, provision is
made for invalids and insane of all colours ; and there is a
school for children who are born or put there, to which
blacks have the same access as whites. When children are
of proper age to be bound out, the boys to a trade or a farm,
and the girls to serve in families, the persons who take them
enter into indentures with the overseers of the poor ; they
oblige themselves to perfect the boys in reading, writing,
and arthmetick ; to provide them with clothing, and at
the age of twenty-one to dismiss them with two suits of
clothes and twenty pounds in cash. The girls are to be
taught reading, writing, sewing, knitting and housewifery,
and to be dismissed at the age of eighteen with suitable
clothing. The same indentures are given for blacks as for
whites.

In cases where negroes formerly took their freedom with-
out the consent of their masters, and without a legal process,
and have since become paupers, there is yet a question con-
cerning their support. Some say, that their former masters
ought to be at the expense. Others say, that as the publick
opinion was in favour of their emancipation, they ought to