70 Mr Harvey on the Increase of the Population 
the last received a small increment ; its slave population, ac- 
cording to the last census, exceeding 4500. Maryland also, 
which, during the first and second periods, had received incre- 
ments respectively proportional to 5.4 and 2. 7, in the last pe- 
riod experienced a decrement of 3.8 per cent. But any incre- 
ment, however small it may be, when operating on a conside- 
rable slave population, like that contained in Maryland, must 
be viewed with concern. In 1790 the slaves amounted to 
above 103,000, and these, by the increments they received in 
the succeeding decades, were increased, in 1810, to more than 
111,000; but the decrements experienced in the last period 
reduced them to about 107,000. In Virginia, also, with slaves 
amounting, in 1790, to nearly 293,000, we cannot but contem- 
plate with pain so large an increment as 18.2 per cent, in the 
first period, 13.5 per cent, in the second, and 8.3 in the third; 
and though these increments form a descending series, still ope- 
rating, as they do, on so large a population, the effects must be 
very considerable ; and hence we find, that, in 1820, the slaves 
amounted to above 425,000, making an increase, in thirty 
years, of 132,000, Should these increments, during succeeding 
years, still diminish, we may hope to see the slave population of 
Virginia reduced to a stationary state ; or, what would be still 
more pleasing to contemplate prospectively, such a series of de- 
crements, as would speedily lead to a total removal of this un- 
fortunate order of men. The two Carolinas also have received 
increments during each period, but of a decreasing kind. In 
the northern province of this name, the increments were respec- 
tively as 32.5, 26.7, and 21.5, during the three periods indicated 
in the table ; and, in South Carolina, as 36.5, 34.4, and 28.2; 
these increments, augmenting the slave population of the former 
province, in thirty years, from 100,000 to 169,000 nearly; and, 
in the latter, from 107,000 to 250,000 nearly. Georgia, in 
1790, had a slave population of above 29,000 ; during the suc- 
ceeding ten years it received an increment of 138.2 per cent. ; 
and, in the period from 1800 to 1810, another increment of 
76.2 per cent. ; and, in the last decade, a still farther increase 
of 42.2 per cent. The consequence of these rapid increments 
has been, to increase the slave population from a little more 
than 29,000, to nearly 150,000, during the space of thirty 
