70 Progress of Population and Wealth 



the free than of the slaves is probably descended from the white, 

 as well as the African race ; and it is possible that this mixed breed 

 may possess some advantages of temperament, as they certainly 

 do of appearance, which is favourable to longevity. Or it may be, 

 that the small number who attain old age may have been better 

 provided with the comforts of life, and have taken better care of 

 their health than the slaves are able to do. Or lastly, since many 

 of the free coloured consist of those who have been emancipated for 

 their merits or services, or have purchased their freedom by the 

 earnings of a long course of industry, sobriety, and frugality, it may 

 happen that the excess of the long-lived is derived from this de- 

 scription of persons, who would, from the regularity and good con- 

 duct implied by their change of condition, be most likely to attain 

 long life. 



As the enumerations, both of 1830 and 1840, have adopted dif- 

 ferent discriminations of age for the whites and the coloured race 

 between the ages of ten and one hundred, we cannot accurately 

 compare the chances of life between the two races for the inter- 

 mediate periods. But by the census of 1820, the discriminations of 

 the coloured classes coincided with those of the whites in that cen- 

 sus, as well as the two preceding enumerations, in two particulars, 

 to wit : as to those who were between the ages of twenty-six and 

 forty-five, and those who were above forty-five. Let us, then, com- 

 pare the two races at these periods of life. 



By the enumerations of 1800, 1810, and 1820, the white males 

 between twenty-six and forty-five were 19.58, 19.15, and 19.18 

 per cent of the whole number, making an average of 19.30 per 

 cent; and the 'white females were 19.51, 18.93, and 19.05, making 

 an average of 19.16 per cent. 



By the census of 1820, the males of the free coloured class were 

 20.80 per cent, those of the slaves were 20.78, and both together, 

 equal to 20.79 per cent of the whole coloured population ;* and the 

 females of the free coloured were 22.50, those of the slaves, 20.36, 

 and both together, equal to 20.40 per cent of the whole. At this 

 period of life, then, the centesimal proportion of the whites of each 

 sex was about one and a half per cent less than that of the coloured 

 race. 



*By uniting the two classes of the coloured race, the comparison is not disturbed by 

 emancipation, by which the numbers of one class is increased and the other diminished, 

 to the same absolute extent, indeed, but in very different proportions. 



