Indeed, Mr. Long had laid it down in his
_History of Jamaica_, that the best way to secure the planters from ruin
would be to do that which the resolution recommended. It was notorious,
that when any planter was in distress, and sought to relieve himself by
increasing the labour on his estate, by means of the purchase of new
slaves, the measure invariably tended to his destruction. What then was
the importation of fresh Africans, but a system tending to the general
ruin of the islands?
But it had often been said, that without fresh importations the
population of the slaves could not be supported in the islands. This,
however, was a mistake. It had arisen from reckoning the deaths of the
imported Africans, of whom so many were lost in the seasoning, among the
deaths of the Creole slaves. He did not mean to say that, under the
existing degree of misery, the population would greatly increase; but,
he would maintain, that if the deaths and the births were calculated
upon those, who were either born, or who had been a long time in the
islands, so as to be considered as natives, it would be found that the
population had not only been kept up, but that it had been increased.
If it was true, that the labour of a free-man was cheaper than that of a
slave; and, also, that the labour of a long-imported slave was cheaper
than that of a fresh-imported one; and, again, that the chances of
mortality were much more numerous among the newly-imported slaves in the
West Indies, than among those of old standing there, (propositions,
which he took to be established,) we should see new arguments for the
impolicy of the trade.
Pages:
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974