annually published in Jamaica an Almanack and Regifter, in the nature of the Court Calendar published here; in that of the last year, an account of the land, negroes, &c. is given, of which the following is a Summary, viz.

The Ifland is divided into three Counties,

viz.

305,235 312

922 92,000

75,000 29,000 672,616 296 505 68,300 30,000 34,000 1,522,149 332 532 97,000 76,500 67,000

3,500,000 940 1959 257,300 181,500 137,900

PRE

PREFACE.

HE author of the following pages having learned,

THE

from magazines, newfpapers, and reviews, fent from England to this ifland, fome of the many calumnies, industriously propagated, against the proprietors of negro flaves in the West Indies; and the attempts made to persuade men of humanity and religion, to exert their endeavours to procure a law to abolish slavery and the flave trade, as offenfive to both; thought it might be ufeful to lay before the public the real fituation and treatment of flaves in the fugar colonies; an undertak ing which a long and intimate knowledge of, and refidence, at different times, in most of the islands, from Barbadoes to Jamaica, particularly qualifies him for.

The account he has given, he is satisfied, will be ac knowledged by every perfon, acquainted with the West Indies, to be a lefs favourable representation of the ne groes' fituation than the fact would justify; but as he fpeaks only of general treatment, he has avoided mentioning the attention which particular people fhew their

flaves.

flaves. It is now not uncommon, on fugar eftates, in feveral of the islands, to have, a kind of marquees, or tents pitched, or in their stead, thatched sheds erected, in different places, on the land for the negroes, in cafe of hafty and violent showers, to retire to, and alfo to employ two or three boys, with mules, to bring grafs, to prevent the gang having any thing to do after they leave the field; which is confidered injurious to their healths, as they are often detained, in wet weather, till the whole gang are collected together, to be called over.

He has confined himself alfo to the fituation of the flaves in the islands. It never was fuppofed they were treated with more tenderness on the continent; but it was because he treated of the negroes in the islands; that he has not urged in proof of their fatisfaction in their prefent ftation, the very fmall comparative numbers which could be induced to quit their mafters in Virginia and the Carolinas, when freedom, and every other temptation was held out to them, which could be thought of, for the purpose of enticing them to run

away.

It was the author's original intention to have done no more than point out the extreme improbability, not to say abfurdity, of the accounts given of the planters cruelty to their flaves; but obferving that not only individuals had united themselves upon this occafion,

but

but that the two Univerfities, and other refpectable public focieties, had addressed the Houfe of Commons to abolish the flave trade, as inconfiftent with the Chriftian religion; he could not help respecting fuch authorities; and having doubts how far he might venture to say any thing in favour of a commerce fo generally condemned, he thought it incumbent on him firft to search the scriptures, to learn whether flavery was inconfiftent with the revealed will of the Deity. The refult of his enquiry was perfectly fatisfactory to himself; and he thought it but right to point out fome few of the many paffages to be found in the facred volumes, which justify that commerce. Since the following observations went to the prefs, the author has the great satisfaction to find, that he might have pursued his original plan without any injury to the caufe he has endeavoured to support, as he has feen a pamphlet by the Reverend Mr. Harris, of Liverpool, who has fo clearly proved, from the scriptures, that flavery is neither contrary to the law nor the gospel, that it is scarcely possible for the most confcientious believer, who reads that tract, to doubt in future, whether the man fervant and the maid fervant is not as much a man's property as "his ox or his afs, or any thing that is his."

To a British subject, the word slavery conveys an idea in fome measure different from what it raises in the minds of most other people in Europe. But it is to be doubted,

b