That the pretence of danger to our West Indian islands from the
abolition of the Slave Trade was totally unfounded, Mr. Wilberforce had
abundantly proved; but if there were they who had not been satisfied
with that proof, was it possible to resist the arguments of Mr. Pitt on
the same subject? It had been shown, on a comparison of the births and
deaths in Jamaica, that there was not now any decrease of the slaves.
But if there had been, it would have made no difference to him in his
vote; for, had the mortality been ever so great there, he should have
ascribed it to the system of importing Negroes, instead of that of
encouraging their natural increase. Was it not evident that the planters
thought it more convenient to buy them fit for work, than to breed them?
Why, then, was this horrid trade to be kept up?--To give the planters
truly the liberty of misusing their slaves, so as to check population:
for it was from ill-usage only that, in a climate so natural to them,
their numbers could diminish. The very ground, therefore, on which the
planters rested the necessity of fresh importations, namely, the
destruction of lives in the West Indies, was itself the strongest
argument that could be given, and furnished the most imperious call upon
parliament for the abolition of the trade.
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