COMMUNICATED

   “BLACKS AND MULATTOES

“On the 14th April, seventy of this description of persons, in one company emigrated into and settled within Lawrence county.  They were a part of a stock of slaves emancipated by the last will of a Mr. Ward, late of Pittsylvania county, Virginia, deceased.  Those unfortunate creatures have little or no property of value—­many of them ragged and dirty.  It was expected that such a number together, in such condition would hardly, in Ohio, find a place where to lay their heads; yet so far from meeting with obstacles, facilities to settlement were extended to them.  All of them have found places, and many of them have already obtained security as the law requires; and probably the balance will within twenty days.  The writer of this note would censure none for acts of kindness to this unfortunate class of persons—­yet as he regards the moral character and welfare of society, he cannot view these rapid accessions without some degree of alarm.”—­The Ohio State Journal and Columbus Gazette, May 3, 1827.

Some years later there was established in Mercer county another colony, which because of its connection with friends in Cincinnati, then promoting the settlement of Negroes on public land, became the most promising of the colored communities in Ohio.  Sketching the history of that county, Howe says: 

“In the southern part of this county is a colony of colored people, amounting to several hundred persons.  They live principally by agriculture, and own extensive tracts of land in the townships of Granville, Franklin, and Mercer.  They bear a good reputation for morality, and manifest a laudable desire for mental improvement.  This settlement was founded by the exertions of Mr. Augustus Wattles, a native of Connecticut, who, instead of merely theorizing upon the evils which prevent the moral and mental advancement of the colored race, has acted in their behalf with a philanthropic, Christian-like zeal, that evinces he has their real good at heart.  The history of this settlement is given in the annexed extract of a letter from him.

“’My early education, as you well know, would naturally lead me to look upon learning and good morals as of infinite importance in a land of liberty.  In the winter of 1833-4, I providentially became acquainted with the colored population of Cincinnati, and found about 4,000 totally ignorant of every thing calculated to make good citizens.  Most of them had been slaves, shut out from every avenue of moral and mental improvement.  I started a school for them, and kept it up with 200 pupils for two years.  I then proposed to the colored people to move into the country and purchase land, and remove from those contaminating influences which had so long crushed them in our cities and villages.  They promised to do so, provided I would accompany