Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/181

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Opinion that it is cheaper to buy than breed.

HAT such an opinion prevails in the colonies is too evident. Dalrymple, Captain Wilson, Harrison, and Sir George Young, all affirm, that in their time it was thought by some planters to be cheaper to buy than to breed. The prevalence of the same notion is also confirmed by others. Mr. Rees was informed that the planters did not think it worth their while to breed more than they did. The buying system is said by Dr. Jackson to have been generally preferred. Captain Hall says, the planters esteemed the charge of rearing a child to maturity, more troublesome and greater than buying a slave fit for work, and the same opinion is described as prevailing by Fitzmaurice, Duncan, and Davison. As a farther proof of the existence of such a notion, we may refer to the calculations made upon these occasions. If a negro lasted a certain time, says Baillie, his death was accounted nothing. This time is described by Fitzmaurice to be seven years. Captain Giles also heard the term of seven years affixed for the existence of a gang of negroes, which he saw, and we find a man of the name of Yemman, by Captain Scott's account, reducing his T 2