[Written on the back of the letter, apparently the same day]
Prince’s Catechism
At Capt. Draper’s Request, I have asked the Negro boy Questions to prepare against we should be asked them by the Adjutant, should we ever find an Adjutant, and I have received the following answers for my satisfaction.
Where are you from?
Answered not.
Did you flee Boston?
Answered not.
Where learned you to play so skillful on the Violin?
Answered not.
Where learned you Latin?
Answered not.
Do you have Papers to show you is free?
Answered not.
Where, formerly, did you live?
Answered not.
Come, sir. Did you live in an House?
Answered not.
I see. Did you perhaps live outside, then?
To which he replied, “I have lived outside, sir.”
Did you live recently in a House with a Family?
Countenance cast down — yet defying Answer — he whispered: “I have never even dwellt inside myself.”
I fear, Shun, faith — look ye, I fear he is fled from some tyrant Master, which is Capt. Draper’s Belief. I disclosed no such Suspicion, but said to him simply, “Slavery & Subjugation shall soon enough fall away, sir.”
And so they shall, in the coming Tumults, as Peter’s Chains slipped from off his Wrists when the Angel smote him upon the Side; & the Gates shall be opened, & we shall issue forth, & the Meadows shall lie before us all.
And God shall curse those who hold their fellow Men as Slaves; and in the Last Day, they shall know Weeping, when Christ comes striding from the Skies, Hands drizzling His Blood, Eyes filled with a Sorrow at what He must do: For then they who hold others in Bondage shall know the Lash & Shackle — & shall remain enchained to this Flesh, hobbled with Bone, when the Rest are released from their Gross Bodies into the hallowed Air.