Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/160

( 126 ) Mr. Balllie also, speaking of Carolina, believes the negroes are raised there in as great a proportion as children in Europe, when they are in healthy situations, notwithstanding which he observes, that the cultivation of rice is as laborious as that of sugar, and that the climate of Jamaica is much more favourable to the constitution of the negroes than that of Carolina.

Dr. Harrison also gives his opinion as a medical man, that the climate of Jamaica is more favourable to the increase of slaves than that of Carolina; notwithstanding which disadvantage Carolina increased in slaves, while those in Jamaica decreased.

Mr. Irving mentions the increased population of slaves by birth in Carolina to have been reckoned in his time at from two to ten per cent. and yet he speaks of the climate in the same manner as the rest. The breeding of slaves, he says, was considered so advantageous, that the planter generally valued a child, on the day of its birth, at five pounds.

Mr. Clapham, examined on this subject, for Maryland, says, the negroes kept up their numbers there by propagation, and increased, so that the overplus [sic], in some instances, were shipped to the West Indies. He has known an [sic] hundred sales, where proprietors have had too many for their use, in consequence of increase by propagation, yet they were not thought to be well treated, though better than to the southward, and the climate was subject to great and sudden variety of heat and cold.

Mr. Beverley, examined respecting Virginia, states, that the negroes there always kept up their numbers, and generally increased. His father's more than doubled their numbers. In 1761 he had about two hundred, and in 1788 he paid taxes on above five hundred and forty, of whom not above twenty or thirty had been added by purchase.

Mr. Beverley