The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-05-31 00:00:00

increase in the West-Indies ? In Ameri..a, the cli-
mate of which was not so congenial to them as that
of the West-Indies, the slaves had doubled their
number in a very few years. They had increased in
Bencoolen and St. Helena. A cargo of slaves, who
had been wrecked about 100 years ago, on the island
of St. Vincent, had, under every disadvantage
to seek for their subsistence, increased to that nu-
merous body of men, who since went by the name
of Caribs. A similar increase took place among
the Ist:moons, who were the descendants of those
slave;, who ran away into the woods at the time we
first took Jamaica from the Spaniards ? Why, then,
was there a continual decrease among those slaves
who were the property of the West-India Planters ?
The cause was very obvious. It was the bard treat-
ment they met with from their masters, who never
thought of keeping up their slaves by the common
cours:• of nature. It appeared to them to be more
expensive to sear slaves, than to import them. Mr.
Hume, speaking on this subjeft, exemplified the
point by a simile, when he said, that men found it
more to their interest to purchase fresh slaves, in
the SA me manner as they would prefer purchasi n g cattle
brought from part ic lar places,when they could he bred
at a le,s espence. Such were the shocking vices of the
West Indian system, that the slaves there could not
increase : and one of the grand causes was, that
they were worn out before they could propagate;
they were not sufficiently fed. In America the
slaves had three times the quantite of fond they had
in the West Indies; and, in Jamaica, the allowance
to runaway slaves kept in prison was double what
'tad been granted to the working negroes in the
"thee Islands. Another cause of the want of popu-
lation, and the decrease of their numbers, was the
excessive labour they were obliged to undergo in
proportion to their food. In America they worked
by task, and the consequence was, that they assisted
each other to finish their work. It was quite different
in the West Indies, and of course they were worn
away. Here it unfortunately happened that men of
low, of little knowledge, and unfeeling dispositions,
became masters of slaves, and :seed like savage ty-
rants over them. The bad effeel with regard to
population avas not the only evil. Slaves in the West
Indies were held in a state of the most able& de-
gradation ; they were bound down and ground to
the very dust. Tr is coul.l he proved by a variety
of facts. Even flee negroes were held in great de-
gradation, and what must he the state of those poor
wretches who were not free, when they were ready
to give the earnings of their whole life, even to at-
tain that freedom, which then was a degradation.
These and a variety of other circumstances led to
this conclusinn—that if the African trade was abo-
lished, if importation was prevented, the slaves
now in the West Indies would meet a very different
treatment Irons %hat they had hitherto experienced ;
that the planters must, from necessity, encourage po-
pulation among them ; and that of COWSe they must
not he worn away as they were. It appeared that
a different treatment in the last ten years had pro-
duced a less decrease in their numbers than for-
merly. In Jamaica, the population had not dimi-
nished The constant decrease in other places was
owing to the West Indian system. Let the trade from
Africa be once abolished, and that system must cease.
He then goosed Maloueq who bad written in de-
fence of the Slave Trade. That writer acknow-
ledged that the morality among the Blacks WAS con-
siderably less in St. Domingo than in other islands.
because the Negro women are there treated with
more indulgence immediately after bearing children,
and are longer spared from work, and the children
are more kindly brought up. This was evidence in
the mouth of an enemy to the abolition of the Slave
Trade. What reason can be assigned, why the po-
pulation of Slaves born in America encreascs great-
ly beyond that in our colonies, but that the Slaves
there have more food with less lab ur ? If the system
of treating the Slaves with kindness, of moderating
their labour, and encreasing their food in a reason-
able degree, were fairly and universally put to the
proof, he could have no doubt that the encrease of
Negroes, without importation, would be adequate to
all the work of the Colonies. Another grand argu-
ment that had been urged against the abolition of
the Slave Trade was, that if we abandoned it, other
Nations would carry it on, to supply our deficiency
in the market. This was an argument so worthless,
he could not lose any time in refuting it. A mon-
strous crime is to be continued, to the misery of
thousands and thousands of our fellow creatures. , as
long as you can go round the world and find one
nation base enough, weak and wicked enough, to
be engaged in its perpetration I Another argu-
ment, that had great influence at the time, and was
perhaps more praEtically relied on than all the rest,
was, that it became the House no to do violence to
the feelings of the legislatures in the West India co-
lonies; that time ought to he given them, to see,
not only the justice but the praelicabilny of the
scheme for abolishing the Slave Trade; that they
ought not to be driven into it, but brought over by
means as conciliatory as the naeasisre professed to be
humane. He had observed the progress of opini-
ons since that period, in the West Indies. He never
should expeet a hearty co-operation on their part, in
this great objed. The rage for importing Slaves is
encreased ; new settlements are made, fresh lands
are cultivated. 'The prejud'ces, the old feelings of
the colonies are strengthened ; new irritation of
mind arises on the question, of which there is new
proof every year. Instead of the minds of the Colo-
nies being softened by time, they grow more and
more attached to the system; they hug it closer and
closer; and would continue to do so, till it mor-
tally stung them, and they paid with their lives
for their fatal attachment. All these argu-
ments had been refitted over and over in the
House ; which had come to a mature resolution to
abolish the Slave Trade gradually. A majority of
larger amount in numbers, of more charades. and
talent, was never seen in that House, than themajori-
ty which voted for that abolition. But, if such was
the conduet of the House in 1792, if such was the
misery they then saw in the Slave Trade, that abomi-
nabletrade,howgreatly had these been increased since
that period ? If this was examined, every humane
mindwouldbewithhim. Yetheshocldnot pursuethat
argument further. To those who loved their own
interest ill understood, better than justice, he would
use other arguments. Since the tame when he first
agitated the question in the House, there was an in-
crease (by importation) in the black population in
our 1 !ands of 300,01/0 tlaves ! In Jamaica alone, the