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expect, and the overſeer puſh to keep up the ſame quantity of produce. If the ſame work be expected to be done with a reduction of hands, the remainder muſt gradully fail in ſtrength, until at laſt they ſhall be brought down ſo low, that the crops will fall at once, new negroes, to a conſiderable amount muſt be purchaſed; they muſt be ſeaſoned, they muſt be ſettled; and let them turn out ever ſo well, it muſt require many years of ſteady, and ſucceſsful management to bring up the property to its former produce.
No man, who is acquainted with the Weſt Indies, can ſuppoſe it poſſible that the average upon eſtates in the iſlands, can preſerve a given number of negroes, without the aid of foreign purchaſe.[1] Some plantations bury more than others; and it is natural
- ↑ If properties in the Weſt Indies were only to be conſidered as nurſeries for the preſervation of the human ſpecies, and the occupations of the negroes were to be conformable to this intention; there is little doubt but the capital of ſlaves might be augmented upon every plantation; but it does not follow, that a life of idleneſs, is a life of policy, or that the negroes would be more happy (they certainly would be leſs uſeful) under indolence than toil.
