The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign | Page 4

that as long as importation is continued, and
two-thirds of the slaves imported are men, the succeeding generation,
in the most favourable circumstances, cannot be more numerous than if
there had been only half as many men; or, in other words, at least half
the men may be said, with respect to population, to die without
posterity."--Macpherson, vol. iv. 148.
In 1792, a committee of the Jamaica House of Assembly reported that
"the abolition of the slave trade" must be followed by the "total ruin
and depopulation of the island." "Suppose," said they,
"A planter settling with a gang of 100 African slaves, all bought in the
prime of life. Out of this gang he will be able at first to put to work, on
an average, from 80 to 90 labourers. The committee will further
suppose that they increase in number; yet, in the course of twenty years,
this gang will be so far reduced, in point of strength, that he will not be
able to work more than 30 to 40. It will therefore require a supply of 50
new negroes to keep up his estate, and that not owing to cruelty, or
want of good management on his part; on the contrary, the more
humane he is, the greater the number of old people and young he will

have on his estate."--Macpherson, iv. 256.
In reference to this extraordinary reasoning, Macpherson says, very
correctly--
"With submission, it may be asked if people become superannuated in
twenty years after being in _the prime of life_; and if the children of all
these superannuated people are in a state of infancy? If one-half of
these slaves are women, (as they ought to be, if the planter looks to
futurity,) will not those fifty women, in twenty years, have, besides
younger children, at least one hundred grown up to young men and
women, capable of partaking the labour of their parents, and replacing
the loss by superannuation or death,-- as has been the case with the
working people in all other parts of the world, from the creation to this
day?"
To this question there can be but one reply: Man has always increased
in numbers where he has been well fed, well clothed, and reasonably
worked; and wherever his numbers have decreased, it has been because
of a deficiency of food and clothing and an excess of work.
It was at this period that the Maroon war was again in full activity, and
so continued until 1796, when it was terminated by the employment of
bloodhounds to track the fugitives, who finally surrendered, and were
transported to Lower Canada, whence they were soon after sent to
Sierra Leone.
From 1792 to 1799, the net import was 74,741; and if it continued at
the same rate to 1808, the date of the abolition of the trade, the number
imported in eighteen years would be nearly 150,000; and yet the
number of slaves increased, in that period, from 250,000 to only
323,827--being an annual average increase of about 4500, and
exhibiting a loss of fifty per cent.
In the thirty-four years, 1775-1808, the number of negroes added to the
population of the island, by importation, would seem to have been
more than 260,000, and within about 50,000 of the number that, a
quarter of a century later, was emancipated.

In 1817, nine years after importation had been declared illegal, the
number is stated [4] at 346,150; from which it would appear that the
trade must have been in some measure continued up to that date, as
there is no instance on record of any natural increase in any of the
islands, under any circumstances. It is, indeed, quite clear that no such
increase has taken place; for had it once commenced, it would have
continued, which was not the case, as will be seen by the following
figures:--
In 1817, the number was, as we see 346,150. In 1820, it was only
342,382; and if to this we add the manumissions for the same period,
(1016,) we have a net loss of 2752.
In 1826, they had declined in numbers to 331,119, to which must be
added 1848 manumissions--showing a loss, in six years, of 9415, or
nearly three per cent.
The number shown by the last registration, 1833, was only 311,692;
and if to this we add 2000 that had been manumitted, we shall have a
loss, in seven years, of 19,275, or more than five per cent. In sixteen
years, there had been a diminution of ten per cent., one-fifth of which
may be attributed to manumission; and thus is it clearly established that
in 1830, as in 1792, a large annual importation would have been
required, merely to maintain the number of the population.
That the condition of the negroes