I cannot therefore but consider the earnestness of the Slaves to purchase, at so dear a rate, their admission into a class of beings, which, whether we judge from what we know of the circumstances of their situation, or from the accounts given of it by all intelligent writers (by none more than by Mr. Edwards himself), we should conceive the most unprotected, ineligible and miserable condition of human existence in any civilized society, as a most decisive proof of the wretchedness of the state of slavery. From the very nature of the case, it is probable, in some of the instances, we know, that they who have thus purchased their freedom have been the Slaves of Masters of affluence, under whom the treatment must have been as mild and liberal, and the situation as comfortable, as the condition of a West Indian Slave is capable of being rendered. It therefore seems fairly to indicate that there are particulars in the situation and circumstances of a West Indian Slave in general, as such, which prove a source of great practical suffering; and perhaps it is a proof of the degree in which the Slaves are conscious of their own degradation. But it also well deserves to be noted, that we never find any, either of those Slaves who have bought their freedom, or of the free Negroes or coloured men, of whom there are above a thousand in many of the smaller islands, and in Jamaica several thousands, desiring to be again admitted into the condition of slavery.
We know that in the middle ages it was not uncommon for poor men of free condition voluntarily to become vassals, that, in an age in which person and property were very imperfectly secure, they might obtain a master’s protection; but the vassalage of the middle ages was not the slavery of the West Indies. In spite of all the evils therefore and degradation, incident to the state of Blacks who have no owner to protect them from injuries and insults, there never yet was, surely there never will be, an instance of an emancipated Negro returning to resume the yoke of slavery, notwithstanding all the security and all the comforts which we are assured this situation carries in its train. May not also the state and circumstances of this class account for the numerous defects and vices which are laid to their charge? Their indolence is particularly noticed, and their never engaging in field-work is mentioned as discreditable to them: but can we wonder that none will subject themselves to the driver’s lash, who are not absolutely forced to submit to such a degradation.[[40]]
On the whole, therefore, notwithstanding the favourable representation made of the condition and treatment of the negro Slaves by persons of high rank and acknowledged respectability; if you will seriously weigh the amount of the various vices of the West Indian system which have been here enumerated, you will be ready almost with certainty to conclude; that, under circumstances so extremely unfavourable to the multiplication of our species, the West Indian Slaves must annually and rapidly decrease in number. |First Proposition proved.| This, it will be remembered, was the first of the three propositions which I undertook to prove on the question concerning the keeping up of the Black population without importations from Africa.
Second Proposition.
The second proposition was, that notwithstanding all the grievous abuses of the West Indian system, the decrease of the Slaves was on the whole very inconsiderable, if there were any decrease at all.
When the Slave Trade became first the subject of public discussion, His Majesty’s ministers sent to the legislative and executive bodies of the different West Indian Islands, a number of queries, the answers to which contained a vast body of information on the various particulars of the colonial system. A great addition was made to this stock of information, by examining various persons of intelligence and experience in West Indian affairs. The whole was compiled into one bulky Report, and laid before both Houses of Parliament.
This Report contains the account of the population, both white and black, slave and free, of our several West Indian islands, as received from their respective governors. We are there furnished with the actually existing number of the Slaves in Jamaica, |Jamaica Slaves Population.| which alone contained as many as all the other islands put together, at several different periods; the first, at the distance of almost a century; the last, in the year 1787; together with the number of Slaves imported annually, during the whole period. In order to judge whether the Black population was in an improving or declining state, the whole term was divided into four periods:
| The 1st | beginning | with 1698 and | ending with | 1730. |
| The 2d | ......... | from 1730 to | ............ | 1755. |
| The 3d | ......... | from 1755 to | ............ | 1768. |
| The 4th | ......... | from 1768 to | ............ | 1787. |
And we had the satisfaction to find, from those unexceptionable documents, that,
| In the first period, the excess of deaths above the births, of Slaves, or their annual decrease, was | 3½ p’ct |
| In the 2d period, it was | 2½ |
| In the 3d period, it was lessened to | 1¾ |
| And in the 4th, from 1768 to 1788, it was not more than | 1 |