sentences:  In 1808 he was chosen to give a speech on the first anniversary of the United States' abolition of the international slave trade; his talk was "An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade; Delivered in the African Church in the City of New-York, January 1, 1808".His speech was published as a pamphlet; it was one of the earliest publications by a black about abolition.In 1818, with the blessings of the prominent white Episcopal minister Rev.