in the United States in Fifty Years. 69 



males ; and after one hundred, the males regain, and exceed their 

 original preponderance. 



We are the more warranted in referring these alterations to 

 general causes, as they are found in both the last enumerations. 

 The gain of the females between the ages of twenty-four and thirty- 

 six, may be referred to the greater casualties to which the male sex 

 is exposed, and to the greater number of runaways of that sex. 

 The loss of the females from thirty-six to fifty-five, is probably to 

 be ascribed to that greater mortality of the sex which has been ob- 

 served in the other classes at this period of life. The gain of the 

 females from fifty-five to one hundred may be confidently attri- 

 buted to their greater longevity, after they have passed the age of 

 fifty ; and if the excess of males above one hundred, which is shown 

 by the census, may seem to contradict this supposition, the fact ad- 

 mits of a similar explanation to that given for the excess of white 

 males of this extreme age. Most of the male slaves over one hun- 

 dred may have been Africans by birth, and have thus had consti- 

 tutions more favourable to long life than the average of the native 

 slaves, much the largest part of whom live in the least healthy 

 parts of the United States. This supposition derives some proba- 

 bility from the fact that in the free coloured class, which is known 

 to consist almost entirely of natives, the females above one hundred 

 exhibit a continuance of the same progressive excess which they 

 had exhibited in the periods of life immediately preceding. 



There is a manifest difference in mortality and longevity be- 

 tween the two portions of the coloured race, in favour of the free 

 coloured class. By the census of 1820, of those under thirty-six, the 

 proportional numbers of the two classes are nearly the same ; but 

 of those over that age, the free coloured are fifteen per cent of the 

 whole number, while the slaves are but ten per cent. By the two 

 last enumerations, the centesimal proportions of each class from 

 twenty-four to thirty-six are nearly equal ; but after thirty-six, the 

 proportion of the free coloured increase in an augmented ratio. 



A part of this excess is attributable to emancipation, which com- 

 monly takes place in middle life, whether it be effected by the favour 

 of the master, or by the purchase of his freedom by the slave him- 

 self ; but the change in the relative numbers of the two portions in 

 after life, shows that those who are free are more iong-lived than 

 the slaves. 



The causes of this difference may arise from several circum- 

 stances. Of the coloured population, a much larger proportion of 



