Having now concluded my account of the different productions of the colony, particularly cotton, sugar, cacao, indigo, and coffee, to which it is indebted for its riches; and having once more repeated that the different trees, shrubs, plants, roots, gums, and perfumes, are equally as innumerable as they are excellent; I cannot have a fairer opportunity of fulfilling my promise of [[358]]submitting to the reader a few considerations, by an attention to which I cannot help thinking that not only Surinam, but the West India colonies in general, might accumulate wealth to themselves, and promote the permanent happiness of the slaves that are under their subjection, without having recourse to the Coast of Guinea to supply the almost hourly consumption of that unfortunate people. But before I proceed, it will be necessary to state the manner in which the negro slaves are distributed and treated, by the customs of this settlement only, without adverting to the distribution or government of them in other colonies; from which, however, those may equally derive some profit;—and then I shall endeavour to point out how, in my opinion, they ought to be distributed and treated, according to the laws, not only of humanity but of common sense.
I have before observed that in Surinam there are supposed to be on an average about 75,000 negro slaves of all denominations, which (allowing them, for the sake of a round number, to amount to 80,000) are here distributed in the following extraordinary manner, viz. The plantations, being about 800 in number, though some have but 24 negroes, and others 400, we will suppose them to possess 100 slaves each, which complement is exactly the above number of 80,000 people. These are employed in this settlement as follows; the first column of figures alluding to one estate, the second ditto to eight hundred. [[359]]
EMPLOYMENTS.
| On One Estate. | On 800 Estates. | |
| Four boys or male servants to attend about the house | 4 | 3,200 |
| Maids or female servants to wash, sew, iron, &c. | 4 | 3,200 |
| A cook for the planter, overseer, &c. | 1 | 800 |
| A fowler, or huntsman, to provide game for the table | 1 | 800 |
| A fishing negro to provide fish for ditto | 1 | 800 |
| A gardener to provide the table and the flower garden | 1 | 800 |
| To attend the bullocks and horses on the estate | 1 | 800 |
| To attend the sheep on the estate | 1 | 800 |
| To attend the hogs on the estate | 1 | 800 |
| To attend the poultry that is on the estate | 1 | 800 |
| Carpenter negroes, to build, houses, boats, &c. | 6 | 4,800 |
| Cooper negroes, to make and repair hogsheads | 2 | 1,600 |
| A mason, to build and repair the brick foundations | 1 | 800 |
| At Paramaribo, some to trades, others for shew | 15 | 12,000 |
| A negro surgeon, to attend the sick negroes | 1 | 800 |
| Sick and incurable, that are in the hospitals | 10 | 8,000 |
| A nurse for the negro children that cannot be with their parents | 1 | 800 |
| Children under age, that can do no work of any kind | 16 | 12,800 |
| Superannuated negroes, worn out by slavery | 7 | 5,600 |
| To work in the fields no more than 25 miserable wretches | 25 | 20,000 |
| Total, or compleat number of slaves in the colony | 100 | 80,000 |
[[360]]
By this it appears, that no more than 20,000, or only one-fourth of the whole number, are condemned to do all the labour of the fields, on whom it may be said chiefly falls the dreadful lot of untimely mortality that I have formerly mentioned. Now it is evident, that if the 50,000 able-bodied slaves that are in the colony of Surinam were put to equal drudgery, the mortality, which is now at the rate of five per cent. would then increase to at least the number of twelve out of every hundred, and would compleatly extirpate the whole mass in little more than eight years time.
Having thus at an average demonstrated how they are distributed, I must briefly observe, that while full 30,000 live better than the common people of England, and near 30,000 are kept in idleness, and do no work in the fields; the remaining 20,000 may be classed (that is in general) among the most miserable wretches on earth; and are worked, starved, insulted, and flogged to death, without being so much as allowed to complain for redress, without being heard in their own defence, without receiving common justice on any occasion, and thus may be considered as dead-alive, since cut off from all the common privileges of human society.
I will now proceed, by candidly asking the world, If the above is not an improper and senseless misapplication, not only of wealth, but of human life and labour; which, only by a proper distribution and management, might accumulate the one and relieve the other? [[361]]
Now would this inconsiderate colony but give up their habits of pride and luxury, nay, in a moderate degree, 20,000 negroes at least might be added to those now labouring in the fields, which (providing the whole were treated with less severity) must at the same time keep the above superfluous number of idlers employed; and by assisting the others in their necessary occupations, could not but tend greatly to prevent that shocking mortality, to which they are at present exposed by unbounded ill-usage and barbarity.
But every reform must begin at that which is the source of manners as well as of justice; and those therefore who are entrusted with the executive government should have no temptation to overlook the breaches of a law, while it ought to be a sacred and invariable rule never to allow either the governor or the magistrates of such a colony to be the proprietors of more slaves than merely a limited number, to attend on their persons, according to their ranks: since more than once, even to my observation, it has occurred that those who made, and those who were appointed to enforce the laws, have been the first that broke them, for the paltry benefit of causing their negroes to work on a Sunday, or to follow the bent of their unbounded passions; from which shameful example from the magistrate, the contagion must necessarily spread among the individuals.