Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade (1791)/Chapter 14
This question may be answered from what has appeared in some of the preceding chapters.
Slaves have been shewn to have been wounded by the watchmen, in stealing provisions to which they have been impelled by hunger; but as, by some of the foregoing regulations, they would be sufficiently fed, (and where they have been sufficiently fed the evidence has shewn that they have not stolen at all) those watchmen would become unnecessary as such, and might be turned into the effective field-gangs.
It has appeared also, that where task-work is introduced the whip is unnecessary: hence the drivers, whose only business is to force labour (and of whom there are four or five, says Coor, to every 100 slaves) might themselves be converted into field-labourers.
It has been shewn too, that, in consequence of their being better fed, according to some of the regulations suggested, they would be far less liable to suffer from epidemicks, and it is evident, that, being better fed, less worked and harrassed by the whip, that is, in every respect, better used, their lives would be proportionably prolonged.
It has likewise appeared, that two slaves, assisted by the plough, do the work of thirty without it; and that, in the earthing up of the canes, two slaves using the East Indian implement mentioned would do the work of ten with the hoe.
From the present compulsive and oppressive system, it has appeared in evidence, that numbers of slaves run away, and are laid up sickly. But the regulations would put an end to these evils, and the gangs, not being deserted and thinned as before, would become more efficient in strength and number.
This strength and this number would be rendered still more effective, by the assistance and labour of such, as we have seen, are under the present system, often crippled or badly wounded by the watchmen. From the above then it appears,
1.That on the day the importation should cease, the colonists, by incorporating the watchmen and drivers in their field-gangs, would have an additional number (and that a considerable one) of seasoned hands by which they would be compensated for the natural deaths of the working slaves, during at least a part of the time in which the rising generation were growing up for labour.
2.That the natural deaths of the working slaves would be greatly and progressively retarded, from that day, and could not possibly happen so frequently as before.
3.That, taking into consideration the retarding of the deaths of the working slaves, and the augmenting of their number, they might not, in three or four years be so reduced, but that their number might be then equal to what it was on the day of stopping the importation, when the whole of the efficient hands under the former wretched system were not thus called into employ.
4.That even if no augmentation could be made to the number of working slaves, and their natural deaths were as frequent as before, it by no means follows that the cultivation need be impeded till the rising generation could grow up; because a much less number of hands, assisted by cattle and the implements mentioned, would evidently do much more work than a greater, under the present system.
In short, after the circumstances stated, and considering also that there is now in the colonies a series of Creoles of all ages, ready to supply successively the places of many that would go off by natural death, no man can rationally suppose, that the number of working slaves could ever be reduced so low, while the rising generation were growing up, as not to be as fully adequate to the cultivation of the colonies, as they are at present. Mr. Botham says, that by means of two-thirds, nay even one-half of the present force (and he speaks experimentally) the islands might be much better cultivated) under certain regulations, than under what he terms, the present miserable management: and yet the regulations suggested by Mr. Botham are not so numerous as those deduced from the evidence, in the preceding chapters.
If, however, any one should dispute this point, he must be told, that the colonists have yet many other resources. They have generally, in the first place, a number of domestick slaves that are supernumerary and useless. They have a great number of superfluous domesticks at Barbadoes, says Woodward, in town and country. Mr. Giles thinks half the domesticks of Grenada and Montserrat unnecessary. Lieutenant tenant Davison has known, in Jamaica, from twelve to twenty domesticks in a house, where half the number would have done as well. Dr. Jackson too observes, that there are three times more domesticks in Jamaica than would be in England, for the same work; and Jeffreys, speaking of those in the same island, says they are too many; they are a nuisance from their numbers. Hence it is clear, that were it possible a failure of hands for the field could take place before the assigned epocha arrived, many domesticks might be spared, without any inconvenience, for field-labour. Nor would this change be at all disagreeable to many of them: for we have seen their lives often rendered miserable, by being constantly under the eye, and subject to the caprice of their masters and mistresses. Coor, indeed, has often heard many of them say, that they would rather be under the field hardships, than in the house.
This resource, though very considerable, is yet not the only one the planters are possessed of: for many of the slaves are coopers, carpenters, mill-wrights, copper-smiths, black-smiths, and the like, all of whom could perform field-labour, and their places, if necessary, be supplied by white men, who, if temperate, would not suffer in their health. Land surveying, says Terry, is exceedingly laborious in the West Indies, and yet he followed it for seven years, without injury to his health. He has often seen white mill-wrights at work in the sun, whose health did not suffer. There are also white coopers and blacksmiths there, but the former only direct negroes working under them. Lieutenant Davison is sure whites, if temperate, could, without material injury, do any kind of out-door work. It is well known that the ship-wrights and other tradesmen in the king's yard, Port-Royal, often work all day long, and he never knew them unhealthier than people in general. White artificers do work at their trades in the West Indies, without materially hurting their health. Captain Cook has no doubt, and he speaks from many instances, that white people by habits of temperance and regularity of hours, might bring themselves to go through nearly as much labour and fatigue in the West Indies, as any people whatever. Mr Clappeson thinks the whites, if temperate, are able to labour in Jamaica. He says, no people work harder than the English sailors there: and Dr. Jackson apprehends, as a medical man, that white men may work as artificers, in the West Indies, without any material detriment to their health.