The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign | Page 5

there in 1817, and could scarcely have been less than 750,000, and certainly, at the most moderate estimate, not less than 700,000. If to these we were to add the children that must have been born on the island in the long period of 178 years, and then to reflect that all who remained for emancipation amounted to only 311,000, we should find ourselves forced to the conclusion that slavery was here attended with a destruction of life almost without a parallel in the history of any civilized nation.
With a view to show that Jamaica cannot be regarded as an unfavourable specimen of the system, the movement of population in other colonies will now be given.
In 1764, the slave population of ST. VINCENT'S was 7414. In 1787, twenty-three years after, it was 11,853, having increased 4439; whereas, in four only of those years, 1784-87, the net import of negroes had been no less than 6100.[5] In 1805, the number was 16,500, the increase having been 4647; whereas the net import in three only, out of eighteen years, had been 1937. What was the cause of this, may be seen by the comparative view of deaths, and their compensation by births, at a later period:--
Year 1822.................... 4205 deaths, 2656 births. " 1825.................... 2106 " 1852 " " 1828.................... 2020 " 1829 " " 1831.................... 2266 " 1781 "
The births, it will be observed, steadily diminished in number.
At the peace of 1763, DOMINICA contained 6000 slaves. The net amount of importation, in four years, 1784 to 1787, was 23,221;[6] and yet the total population in 1788 was but 14,967! Here we have a waste of life so far exceeding that of Jamaica that we might almost feel ourselves called upon to allow five imported for every one remaining on the island. Forty-four years afterwards, in 1832, the slave emancipation returns gave 14,834 as remaining out of the vast number that had been imported. The losses by death and the gains by births, for a part of the period preceding emancipation, are thus given:--
1817 to 1820................. 1748 deaths, 1433 births. 1820 to 1823................. 1527 " 1491 " 1823 to 1826................. 1493 " 1309 "
If we look to BRITISH GUIANA, we find the same results.[7]
In 1820, Demerara and Essequebo had a slave population of............................... 77,376 By 1826, it had fallen to......................... 71,382 And by 1832, it had still further fallen to....... 65,517
The deaths and births of this colony exhibit a waste of life that would be deemed almost incredible, had not the facts been carefully registered at the moment:--
1817 to 1820................. 7140 deaths, 4868 births. 1820 to 1823................. 7188 " 4512 " 1823 to 1826................. 7634 " 4494 " 1826 to 1829................. 5731 " 4684 " 1829 to 1832................. 7016 " 4086 "
We have here a decrease, in fifteen years, of fifteen per cent., or 12,000 out of 77,000. Each successive period, with a single exception, presents a diminished number of births, while the average of deaths in the last three periods is almost the same as in the first one.
BARBADOES had, in 1753, a slave population of 69,870. In 1817, sixty-four years after, although importation appears to have been regularly continued on a small scale, it amounted to only 77,493. In this case, the slaves appear to have been better treated than elsewhere, as here we find, in the later years, the births to have exceeded the deaths--the former having been, from 1826 to 1829, 9250, while the latter were 6814. There were here, also, in the same period, 670 manumissions.
In TRINIDAD, out of a total slave population of 23,537, the deaths, in twelve years, were no less than 8774, while the births were only 6001.
GRENADA surrendered to the British forces in 1762. Seven years after, in 1769, there were 35,000 negroes on the island. In 1778, notwithstanding the importation, they appear to have been reduced to 25,021.
In the four years from 1784 to 1787, and the three from 1789 to 1791, (the only ones for which I can find an account,) the number imported and retained for consumption on the island amounted to no less than 16,228;[8] and yet the total number finally emancipated was but 23,471. The destruction of life appears here to have been enormous; and that it continued long after the abolition of the slave trade, is shown by the following comparison of births and deaths:--
1817.......................... 451 births, 902 deaths. 1818.......................... 657 " 1070 "
The total births from 1817 to 1831, were 10,144 in number, while the deaths were 12,764--showing a loss of about ten per cent.
The number of slaves emancipated in 1834, in all the British possessions, was 780,993; and the net loss in the previous five years had been 38,811, or _almost one per cent. per annum_.
The number emancipated in the West Indies was 660,000; and viewing