Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/11

Rh the charge of slaves, by compelling them sufficiently and properly to lodge, feed, clothe, and maintain them," &c.

As to the extracts from the West Indian publick prints, the following, among many others, may suffice:—

From the Jamaica paper, called the Cornwall Chronicle, of December 29, 1787, it appears, That an addition to the Consolidated Slave-law was proposed in these terms:—

"Whereas the extreme cruelties and inhumanity of the managers, overseers, and book-keepers of estates, have frequently driven slaves into the woods, and occasioned rebellions and internal insurrections, to the great prejudice of the proprietors, and the manifest danger of the lives of the inhabitants of this island; for prevention whereof, be it enacted," &c. "And whereas also, it frequently happens, that slaves come to their deaths by hasty and severe blows and other improper treatment of overseers and book-keepers, in the heat of passion, and, when such accidents do happen, the victims are entered in the plantation-books, as having died of convulsions, fits, or other causes not to be accounted for, and to conceal the real truth of the cause of the death of such slave or slaves, he or they is or are immediately put under ground," &c.

The member (Mr. Gray) who introduced the above, premised, "That to his own certain knowledge, very unnatural punishments were often inflicted on negroes; b