WEST INDIES. 
355 
CHAP. V.] 
cd too often. The difference between me, and 
those who, on this ground, continue to urge the 
necessity of an immediate and total suppression of 
the slave-trade, is this; they assert that it is not un- 
frequent , but common , the occurrence of every 
hour, to behold the miserable negroes fall victims to 
a series of cruelties of which no other age or coun¬ 
try affords an example; and they maintain, that the 
planters in general are guilty of these cruelties, 
without commiseration or remorse. I, on the 
other hand, aver that, although such enormitie’s 
have certainly sometimes happened, and may hap¬ 
pen again, yet that the general treatment of the 
negroes in the British West Indies is mild, tempe¬ 
rate, and indulgent; that instances of cruelty are 
not only rare, but always universally reprobated 
when discovered; and, when susceptible of legal 
proof, severely punished.* 
* As the latter part of this assertion has been very confidently de¬ 
nied by some of the witnesses that have appeared before a committee of 
the house of commons, I beg leave to trouble the reader with the fol¬ 
lowing cases in point : 
“ Spanish town, Jamaica, Feb. 1777- Thomas Fell was indicted 
for assaulting a negro man slave, the property of Richard Welch, Esq. 
and found guilty. Sentenced to pay a fine to the king of twenty , 
pounds, and to be imprisoned in the common gaol one week, and 
until payment of the fine.” 
“ Kingston, Jamaica. At the Surry assize, 17865 George Ged- 
des was tried, and found guilty on two indictments, for cruelly beat¬ 
ing and maiming two of his own slaves. Sentenced to pay a fine to 
the king of one hundred pounds on each indictment, and to be impri- 
