Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/313

 the previous month, had not been less than four thousand, and while the average rate of present import is not under two thousand per month."

In 1840, Turnbull published his work on "Cuba and Porto Rico." He was a close observer of every thing connected with slavery and the slave-trade, and the greater part of his work is devoted to this subject. From this reliable source we gather some important facts: "As if to throw ridicule on the grave denials of all knowledge of the slave-trade which are forced from successive captains-general of Cuba by the unwearied denunciations of the British authorities, two extensive depots for the reception and sale of newly imported Africans have lately been erected at the further end of the Paseo, just under the windows of his excellency's residence; the one capable of holding 1000 and the other 1500 negroes. These were constantly full during the greater part of the time I remained in Havana. As the barracoon, or depot, serves the purpose of a slave-market as well as a prison, these two have been placed at the point of greatest attraction, where the Paseo ends, and where the grounds of the captain-general begin, and where the railroad passes into the interior. The passengers on the cars are horrified at the unearthly shouts of the thoughtless inmates, who, in their eagerness and astonishment at the passing train, push their arms and legs through the bars of the windows, with the cries, and grimace, and jesticulation, which might be expected from a horde of savages placed in circumstances so totally new and extraordinary. These barracoons are considered by the foreign residents as the lions of the place, and strangers are carried there as to a sight that cannot well be seen elsewhere. On entering you do not find so much misery as an unreflecting visitor might expect. It is the policy of the importer to restore as soon as possible among the survivors, the strength that has been wasted, and the health that has been lost during the horrors of the middle passage. It is his interest to keep up the spirits of his victims, that they may the sooner become marketable, and prevent their sinking under that fatal home-sickness which carries off so many during the first months of their captivity. With this view they are well fed and clothed. Even after leaving the barracoons, the overseer of the plantation finds it for the interest of his master to treat them with lenity for several months, scarcely allowing them to hear the crack of a whip, and breaking them in by slow degrees to the hours and weight of labor which are destined to break them down long before the period which nature prescribes.

"The well understood difficulty of breaking in men and women of mature age to the labors of the field, has produced a demand at the barracoons for younger victims. The range of years in the age of captives appeared to extend from twelve to eighteen, and the proportion of males to females was nearly three to one, as the demand for males was much greater. One motive for the continuation of the slave-trade is the well known fact, that a state of hopless servitude has the effect of enervating the slave, and reducing the physical powers of his descendants far below the average of his African ancestors. A Bozal African commands a price twenty per cent higher than that of a