Page:A Dissuasion from the Slave Trade.djvu/51

Rh into the southern-most parts of North-America and the West-Indies were very poor at that time, not having a penny to command, and never so much as once in their lifetime had it in their power to make one half that sum for themselves, so that the different Provinces in the Continent, and the Islands in the West-Indies are filled with these necessitous Black People, and must be put upon the townships to which they belong, in case this enslaving them be ever abolished, which I flatter myself, and I hope not vainly, will be done in time, and that with effect. Further, why do they fill their Plantations with Black People, so unnatural to the Whites, the Proprietors of the different Colonies, when it seems no way difficult to obtain White People to serve free in their stead? Europe in general affords numbers of poor and distressed objects for that purpose, and if these were not overworked, as the Negroes generally are, they would make as good Servants for the American and West-India Plantations as the Blacks do. And if the Europeans were upon a level with regard to the price of labour, in their Colonies, I cannot but think they would reap great advantage in laying aside the Slave Trade, and cultivate a friendly and civilized Commerce with the Africans.