A, D. 1788. 



149 



the courfe of one generation ; after which, there can be no doubt, that the 

 numbei-s of the Negroes would continue undiminifhed ; and, as better care 

 would then of neceffity be taken of them, they would undoubtedly increafe 

 in a climate congenial to that, from which their anceftors were brought. 

 Of this there are inflances on fome plantations *; and if they increafe 

 on fome, there can apparently be no good reafon, why they fliould not 

 increafe on all, which would be a prodigious great advantage to the 

 proprietors of Weft-India eftates. Another great advantage, refulting 

 from the abolition of importation, would be, that in the next genera- 

 tion there would be no obea men \ : there would be an end of that cred- 

 ulity and fuperftition, to be found only among the Negroes imported 

 from Africa, to which one fingle planter in Jamaica afcribed the lofs of 

 about one hundred of his flaves in fifteen years, and which is fuppofed 

 to have been the inftigation to all the infurredlions of the Negroes in 

 that ifland. The Creole Negroes would be attached to the country, in 

 which they were born, and alfo to their maftei's, unlefs their condudl 

 fhould be fuch as to provoke them to hatred and refentment. 



The increafe of Negroes by the natui-al means, the complete abol- 

 ition of national diftindions among them, together with the fuperior 

 docility and knowlege of flaves bred up from their infancy to the work 

 they are deftined to perform, would facilitate the gradual improvement 

 of every inch of practicable wafte land in the iflands. And then, in- 



known by the travels of Mr. Browne) of wliom 

 very few were men, and tliey were moftly young 

 women ; juft fuch a cargo as the Well-India plant- 

 ers fhould wifh for, if they mult have new Negroes. 

 [See Proceedings of the African ajfoc'tal'tan, 1791,/^. 



50. 53-] 



* Mr. Long obferves, that a ftoppage of im- 

 portation, by obliging the owners to be more care- 

 ful in preferving the lives and healths of their pie- 

 fent ftock of (laves, would render recruits lefs ne- 

 ceflary. And he fays, he has known the Negroes 

 on plantations, where they are moderately worked, 

 not only keep up iheir numbers without importa- 

 tion, but alfo increafe ; and that on moft of the 

 old-fettled eftates the number of births and deaths 

 is pretty equal, but that Africans die fafter than 

 : Creole (Weil-India-born) Negroes. But the 

 numbers may well be expedled to fall off rapidly 

 upon plantations, where there Me Jive men to one 

 woman (and Mr. Long afferts, that there are 

 fuch) or where the overfeer forces the Haves to la- 

 bour beyond their powers ' in order to eftablifti his 

 * own character as a. great planter,' at the expenfe of 

 the lives of the Negroes, and the property of his 

 deluded employer. — In the year 1774 the aflembly 

 of Jamaica made laws to check the importation of 

 Negroes. But the remonftrances.of the flave-merch- 

 ants of this country prevailed, and their inten- 

 tion was thwarted by fuperior authority. {^Long's 

 Hiji. of Jamuka, V. i, //>. 401, 460, ; V. ii, pp. 



406,432,436,437 — See alfo above, F, in, p. 574-3 

 The increafe in numbers, and the other advantages, 

 confequent upon the good treatment of the Negroes 

 on two plantations in Barbados, are pointed out by 

 Mr. Senhoufe in a letter to Mr. Sharp, which is 

 printed in the Report, part iii, fheet E e, p. 3. — It 

 is alfo worthy of obfervation, that in the ifland of 

 St. Helena the tenth part of the Negroes died an- 

 nually, till the Eaft-India corripuny eftablillied re- 

 gulations for the treatment of them, Vindt prohibited 

 the importation of netu Negroes. Since that time 

 the numbers have incrtafed ; and the free Negroes, 

 formerly mifreprcfcnted as idle and burtlienfome 

 to the community, arc all employed. \_Siaunton's 

 Embajfy to China V. ill, p. ^^6, fecond edition.'] 



-f- Obca or obi is a pretended lupernatural know- 

 lege (but in faft rather an acquired fltill in the na- 

 ture and effefts of plants) which makes fuch a 

 powerful impreffion on the imaginations of the Ne- 

 groes, efpecially the Africans, that vaft numbers 

 of them have languiflied and died, when they be- 

 l:e,ved themfelves bewitched by the profefTors of 

 obi. Mr. Braithwaite, agent for Barbados, gave 

 in evidence, that the Negroes in that ifland, being 

 nwflly natives, are more civilized and better inform- 

 ed now than when there was a greater proportion 

 of Africans, and conlequently are not fo eafily de- 

 luded by the profelfors of obi. And Mr. Hutciiin- 

 fon gave nearly the fame account of thofe in An- 

 tigua. 



