Therefore is it not evident, that there is not a man in this kingdom, who, in proportion to his possession and property in the community, does not partake of the benefits and advantages accruing from the African, North American, and West Indian trades; and who would not be a sufferer in proportion to his situation in life, should they diminish, by falling into the hands of people belonging to any other nation? where, supposing it to be the case, the profit of those valuable trades must consequently center.
For notwithstanding the advantage the French inhabitants would have had by our retention of those islands, they would take nothing from us for the use of themselves, or their plantations, but what they were obliged to out of the greatest necessity; as we have no wines to supply them with, which are proper for that country: so that they would have their wines, and every thing else they could possibly procure, from France; having been accustomed from their infancy to wear French, which they would ever look on as their own native manufactures. And sorry we are to say, too many of them are used in the British colonies, as well as in this country. For which reason they would always have a dislike to British manufactures, and that would induce them to pursue every measure to smuggle their own into those islands; and for the sake of profit, many English traders would be induced to carry them from the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, and other places, in preference to those of their own country, which has already been the case. But supposing it not so, the real profits of those islands, while possessed by French inhabitants, would not center in Great Britain, but in France; because, on account of the difference in religion, they would send their children thither for education, and make provision for themselves to retire there, always looking upon it as their home. Even so our planters do in regard to Great Britain; for all those who go to the West Indies, or are born there, have no intention to end their days in that climate, but are always aiming to lay by a sufficiency to go home, as they call it; that is, the English planters to come to Great Britain, and the French to France.
By what has hitherto been advanced, surely it will evidently appear to every impartial reader, that had we retain’d the French sugar islands, they would not have been of any advantage to this country, but on the contrary. It is not the number of islands, where sugar, tobacco, rice, and other plantation-products are raised, that will be advantageous to this or any other country, without they can be supplied with a sufficient number of Negroes for their cultivation; the land being all tilled by hand-labour with the hoe, as there is no ploughing with oxen and horses in the West Indies, except in Jamaica, where two or three planters have used the plough to some part of their plantations, where the soil was light, and of a sandy nature; and all other work is done by Negroes, as Europeans cannot do any laborious work there.
Their field labourers, sugar boilers, distillers, coopers, mill-wrights, carpenters, masons, builders, smiths, and house servants, are blacks; therefore it is not the number of islands, but the greatest number of the best Negroes that benefit the mother-country, which sort we can make appear, the French since the year 1729, in times of peace, to the commencement of the present war, have been constantly supplied with. That is one of the true causes why they have produced such quantities of sugar, and other plantation-product; that for several years before the war, they were become our rivals at foreign markets, so far as to draw from thence a great annual balance of trade in favour of France.[6] But this effect would have been prevented, if proper measures had been pursued by us for the preservation of the African trade, to that part of Africa where the hardy Negroes, who are inured to labour in their own country, were to be purchased.
The French, from the year 1729, to the end of the year 1738, carried from the Gold Coast, Popo and Whydah, fifteen or seventeen thousand of those valuable people annually; when four thousand, in any one year during that period, were not carried to the British plantations; which is the truest reason that can be assigned for the prosperity of the French colonies, and the main spring of the great increase of their product. For they do not understand the cultivation and management of a plantation in any degree equal to the British planters: therefore their advantage and success has been owing, in a great measure, to the good and hardy labourers they have had to till their land, and manufacture the product of it.
We doubt not but the merchants trading to Africa will say, they have imported since the year 1729, more Negroes into the British sugar islands, than the French have to theirs in time of peace (to the commencement of the present war). We admit they have, of Negroes from Gambia, Calabar, Boney, Benin, the windward coast, and Angola. But we take upon us to assert, they cannot with truth say, they have imported to the colonies as many Negroes from the Gold Coast, Popo, and Whidah, which are the most valuable for the laborious cultivation of the sugar cane, and other plantation-product, and manufacturing it into sugar and rum, for the following seasons.
The Gold Coast, Popo, and Whidah Negroes are born in a part of Africa that is very barren; a small bullock carried thither from another part, when fatted, will sell for near 32l. a sheep for 20s. four small fowls for 4s. sterling, and all other provisions in proportion, except fish; and their coarse kind of bread, which is their chief food. On that account, when able to take the hoe in hand, they are obliged to go and cultivate the land for their subsistance. They also live hardily; so that when they are carried to our plantations (as they have been used to hard labour from their infancy) they become a strong, robust people, and can live upon the sort of food the planters allow them; which is, bread made of Indian corn, and fish, such as herrings and pilchards sent from Britain, and dried fish from North America, being such food as they lived upon in their own country. Indeed they live better in general in our plantations; and they are always ready, on their arrival there, to go to the hard work necessary in planting and manufacturing the sugar cane.
On the other hand, the Gambia, Calabar, Boney, and Angola Negroes are brought from those parts of Africa, that are extremely fertile, where every thing grows almost spontaneously; and where a bullock may be bought for less than 20s. a sheep for 1s. and a dozen of fowls for the same. They have every other necessary of life in great plenty. On that account, the men never work, but lead an indolent life, and are in general of a lazy disposition and tender constitution; for the necessary work among them is done by the women, which is little more than fetching wood to dress their victuals: so that when those people are carried to our sugar islands, they are obliged to be nursed, to be taken great care of, and brought to work by degrees.
The planters, when the Gold Coast and Whidah Negroes were carried to the sugar colonies, before the French interfered in that trade, found there was not a sufficient number to extend their cultivation, by carrying on all the different planting business, and therefore were accustomed to purchase those tender (the worst sort of) Negroes, and employ them for household servants, to raise corn, aloes, look after cattle, bring them up to trades and easy labour, knowing them unfit for the hard work necessary in sugar-plantations.
The Negroes of the river Gambia are better than the last-mentioned; both of which are much more proper for the North American planters, as they have plenty of provisions at a small expence, and, on that account, can use them to gentle labour, and inure them, by degrees, to work with the same sort of food they were accustomed to in their own country.