Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/163

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Principal causes of the foregoing increase by population.

HE causes of the increase by births, on one of the estates mentioned, viz. on the Marquis de Rouvray's of St. Domingo, are described by Captain Hall as follows:

The slaves were never hard pressed in their work. The Marquis suffered no improper intercourse between the males and females: every man had his own wife, and no white was suffered to disjoin that union. Hospitals were built for the sick and pregnant. The latter, when far advanced, were taken in there, and employed in trifling work, till the time of their delivery. Here they might remain, separated from their husbands, and excused from field labour, till the child could be supported without the mother's help, or when their strength would permit, return with the child to their husbands, and take the chance of work. In consequence, the Marquis had not, for some years, occasion to buy negroes. Having, however, left his estate to the care of a nephew, upon his return, after an absence of two years, instead of the happiness that reigned when he left it, he found nothing but misery and discontent. The whites had seized upon R