PEELIMINAIiY ESSAY. 



75 



is found ; this must, therefore, be sought among the 

 imported slaves, and its effect upon their numbers 

 ascertained. 



The proportion of females imported by the slave 

 traders is, as we have stated somewhere, between 

 1 to 4 and 1 to 5. We believe we may safely assume 

 the ratio of 175 per 1,000 of all, an equal number 

 being also boys between ten and fourteen years of 

 age. The females imported by the slave traders are, 

 for obvious reasons, very nearly, or quite all, women 

 of the productive age, who have never borne child- 

 ren. This proportion of productive women is very 

 large, as will be seen by the statistics of this country. 

 Dr. Jarvis, in his letters to the Census Office, says, 

 " The females in Massachusetts, between twenty and 

 forty, in 1840, were 163 per 1,000 of all, and in 

 the United States 143 per l,000. 5n By the census 

 of 1850 the proportion of white females between the 

 same ages was 148 per 1,000 of all ; and the propor- 

 tion of those between twenty and thirty, which 

 would approximate more nearly to, though still be 

 far from, equalling the class of females imported 

 among the v slaves in Cuba, is only 81 per 1,000 of 

 all. It should also be remembered, in seeking for 

 the law of population in Cuba, that the female 



1 Compendium of United States Census, p. 122, note. 



