These deaths, which were
caused merely by the Slave Trade, furnished the very ground, therefore,
on which the continuance of that trade had been thought necessary.
The evidence as to this point was clear; for it would be found in that
dreadful catalogue of deaths, arising from the seasoning and the
passage, which the House had been condemned to look into, that one half
died. An annual mortality of two thousand slaves in Jamaica might be
therefore charged to the importation; which, compared with the whole
number on the island, hardly fell short of the whole one per cent.
decrease.
Joining this with all the other considerations, he would then ask, could
the decrease of the slaves in Jamaica be such--could the colonies be so
destitute of means--could the planters, when by their own accounts they
were establishing daily new regulations for the benefit of the
slaves--could they, under all these circumstances, be permitted to plead
that total impossibility of keeping up their number, which they had
rested on, as being indeed the only possible pretext for allowing fresh
importations from Africa? He appealed, therefore, to the sober judgment
of all, whether the situation of Jamaica was such, as to justify a
hesitation in agreeing to the present motion.
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