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Show 138 ON THE SLAVERY AND COMMERCE ever co'!ftnt to be flaves ?-They are flaves from tl1eir birth.-Are they guilty of crimes, that they lo{e their freedom?-They are flaves when they cannot fpeak.-Ar~ their pareuts abandoned ? The crimes of the parents cannot jufily extend to the children. Thus then mull the tyrannical receivers, who prefume to fentence the children of flaves to fervitude, if they mean to difpute upon the juilicc of their caufe; either allow them to have been brutes from th~ir birth, or to have been guilty of crimes at a time, when they were incapable of offending the very King qf Kings. C H A P. IV. But to return to the narration. When the wretched Africans are conveyed to the plantations, they are confidered as beqjls of labour, and are put to their refpective work. Having led, in their own country, a life of indolence and eafe, where the earth brings forth fpontaneoufly the comforts of life, and {pares frequently the toil and trouble of cultivation, they can hardly be expected to endure; OF THE HuMAN SPECIES. 139 endure the drudgeries of fer vitude. Calcu~ lations are accordingly made upon their lives. It is conjectured, that if three in four furvive what is called the finfoni11g, the bargain is highly favourable. This feafoning is f.1id to expire, when the two firil years of their fervitude are completed : It is the time which an African mufl: take to be {o accufl:omed to the colony, as to be able to endure the common labour of a plantation, and to be put into the· gang. At the end of this period the calculations become verified, * l7venty tboujimd • One third of the whole number imported, is often computed to be Jolt in the feafoning, which, in round numbers, will be z7ooo. The lofs in the feafoning depends, in a great meafure, on two circum frances, viz. on the number of what arc called rcfufe flaves that are imported, and on the quantity of new ]and in the colony. In the French windward illands of Marti. nico, and G uadaloupe, which nre cleared and highly cultivated, and in our old fmall illands, one fourth, including refufe flavcs, is confidercd as a general proportion. But in St. Do. mingo, where there is a great deal of new land annually taken into culture, and in other colonies in the fame fituation, the general proportion, including refufc fb.ves, is found to be one third. This therefore is a lower ellimate than the former, nnd reduces the number to about 2JOOo, We may obferve, that this is the common cflimatc, but we have reduced it to lOOOO to make it free from all objc[\ioth · * of |