A remarkable Instance of this we have in the Dutch, whose Riches and Grandeur arose from the Increase of their Inhabitants, from their industrious Improvement of Projects, Inventions, and Manufactures at Home and Abroad, and carrying on the greatest Trade with indefatigable Application.
For these Reasons should Virginia be better stocked with Inhabitants, and more useful Arts and Projects be promoted there, than hitherto have been. Not that this would be in order for the publick Good of Virginia alone, but of all the British Empire in general; in that there might be imployed all the idle and superfluous Persons, who for want of Employment or Aversion to Business, prove as dead Members of the whole Body; or else by Immorality and Villany prove noxious to others, destructive to themselves, and a Scandal to Mankind.
What Shoals of Beggars are allowed in Great Britain to suffer their Bodies to rust and consume with Laziness and Want? And besides Strowlers what Number of Poor are burdensom to most Parishes? How do our Streets and Highways swarm with Rogues, and how are we over-stocked (as they say) with vast Numbers of People of all Trades and Professions? But for all and more than these might Work enough be found in our Plantations, where they might be imployed in the Benefit of their Country, for the Advantage both of the temporal and spiritual Concernments, by being kept to Business, and getting Money in an honest Way.
It is a monkish Opinion too prevalent with many still, that there is no good Living without the Bounds of their own Cloyster. And Abundance of English entertain the Chinese Notion, that they are all Fools and Beggars that live in any Country but theirs. This home Fondness has been very prejudicial to the common Sort of English, and has in a great Measure retarded the Plantations from being stock'd with such Inhabitants as are skilful, industrious, and laborious.
For these Reasons, such Persons of Sense and Resolution as have entered into Projects for Improvements in the Plantations (who have evinced us, that all Schemes are not Bubbles) have been obliged for the generality to make Use of the worst and vilest of Mankind, for the Execution of the noblest and most useful Undertakings; tho' indeed continually several People of Sense, Vertue, and Fortune, entertaining tolerable good Notions of these Affairs, have embarked themselves and Families in such laudable and useful Designs: But for the generality, the Servants and inferior Sort of People, who have either been sent over to Virginia, or have transported themselves thither, have been, and are, the poorest, idlest, and worst of Mankind, the Refuse of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Outcast of the People.
These Servants are but an insignificant Number, when compared with the vast Shoals of Negroes who are imployed as Slaves there to do the hardest and most Part of the Work; the most laborious of which is the felling of Trees and the like, to which kind of Slavery (if it must be so called) our Wood-Cutters in England are exposed; only with this Difference, that the Negroes eat wholsomer Bread and better Pork with more Plenty and Ease; and when they are Sick, their Owners Interest and Purse are deeply engaged in their Recovery, who likewise are obliged to take all the Care imaginable of the Children of their Slaves for their own great Profit; so that the Negroes, though they work moderately, yet live plentifully, have no Families to provide for, no Danger of Beggary, no Care for the Morrow.
But to me it seems to be more Prudence and Charity for our own Poor and Vagabonds to be there imployed and provided for, than for us to maintain and use such great Numbers of Africans. If we can do better without them certainly we should forbear importing so many (though this may interfere with the Interest of some), since it would advance the Good of the Publick; and that we may be without them is plain, since we have Rogues and Idlers enough of our own to do the same Work, to which if they were compelled by mild Methods, it would ease the Publick of a great deal of Charge, Trouble, and Loss, and would highly tend to the Advancement of the temporal and spiritual Happiness of our Poor, and be very instrumental in the Suppression of Theft and Villany, and for the Reformation of the most Profligate. Thousands of poor, honest, unfortunate People of all Trades and Occupations might be there imployed for the Support of themselves and Interest of Trade, that can find neither Work nor Maintenance for themselves and Families at Home; and such as had rather stroll or steal here, might be confined by mild Force to moderate Labour there, sufficient to support themselves, and benefit their Imployers.
The British Trade may easily vend their Effects and Manufactures; and Virginia, with the neighbouring Plantations, is capacious enough for their Reception, plentiful for their Maintenance, and abound with most Conveniences and Materials for most Kinds of Imployments; where several Things, upon Account of the Goodness of the Climate, and Fertility of the Country, may be produced with less Labour and more Plenty than in Great Britain; and innumerable Commodities might there be made by our own People, that are now imported at extravagant Prices, and excessive Toil and Danger from other Nations: Nay, we might supply other Nations with most of those Things which we now fetch from Abroad; so that though our Imports might decrease a little, yet would our Exports be abundantly augmented, which undoubtedly would tend much more to the Advantage of our Country: Even our own home Consumption in most Respects might be raised much cheaper and better in the Plantations than here; especially such Things as are with great Toil and Cost forc'd (as it were) unnaturally out of barren Ground, improper Soil, or a disagreeable Climate; and the Land and People in such Places might be occupied in more proper Business, and for more useful Purposes.
But the common People here have such a vain Fondness for their own Country, and such despicable Notions of Virginia, &c. and are under such dreadful Apprehensions of the imaginary Slavery of the Plantations, that they choose for the most Part rather to steal, beg, or starve, than go Abroad to work; and in the mean Time the Magistrates and our Laws are so mild to them, that like as Pharaoh's lean Kine devoured the fat ones, they grievously oppress and molest the Rich and the Honest.
But certainly Means might be invented and practised for easing our Nations of these Burdens, for promoting our Trade and Plantations by their Industry; and not for the Oppression (whatever some may imagine) of the Poor and Needy, but for their Maintenance and Felicity. And I believe this may be done without putting any Stop to the Importation of Negroes, rather than fail, since they might be kept on in their present Course of Life and Business; only they must raise more Stock and Grain for the Support of the additional English, who should stick solely to the Arts and Employments to which they were bred, or in which they are most expert. Indeed while Tobacco is the only Staple Commodity of any Consequence to Virginia, the Country may be easily over-stock'd with Negroes, because the Trade can't find Vent for near all the Tobacco that so many Hands will make; so that the Market being over-charged, is thus spoiled; for too much of any Commodity is as bad, if not worse, for the Planter, the Merchant, and the Publick, than too little. For which Reason the Honourable the Assembly of Virginia has from Time to Time endeavoured to make prudent Provision against raising too much Tobacco.