A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Addressed to the freeholders and other inhabitants of YorkshireWilberforce, William
History
A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade: Addressed to the freeholders and other inhabitants of Yorkshire
Wilberforce, William
Antislavery movements -- Great Britain; Slave trade -- Great Britain
they would more than account for the whole 1 per cent. lost during the
last period; and we should be warranted in concluding, that the whole
number of Slaves in Jamaica were at length actually on the increase.
It will add to your confidence in the conclusion which so clearly
results from the above calculations, to know that they were carefully
drawn by that great and able minister before referred to, among whose
extraordinary powers, peculiar clearness and accuracy in calculation was
universally acknowledged to possess an eminent place. Indeed this result
ought not to surprize us, for we were assured by Mr. Long, many years
before, “that upon most of the old settled estates in the island of
Jamaica, the number of births and deaths every year is pretty equal,
except any malignant disorder happens.”
[Sidenote: Barbadoes Slaves’ Population.]
Calculating on the same principles, and from West Indian accounts, it
appeared that in Barbadoes also, the annual loss of Slaves has been of
late under 1 per cent. Indeed if the loss had been so small in Jamaica,
it probably was not greater in most of the other islands, into which, in
general, the importations had been less considerable, and in which, from
their several circumstances, the population was likely to be, to say the
least, full as well kept up as in Jamaica itself. [Sidenote: Second
Proposition proved.] Thus the second proposition was established, that,
notwithstanding the general prevalence of so many and great abuses, the
annual decrease was very inconsiderable.
[Sidenote: Third Proposition.]
The third proposition, that therefore an increase might in future be
expected, must doubtless rest on the basis of probable inference; but in
a case like this, in which an appeal is made to a principle of sure and
unerring operation, as established by universal experience, we may hold
our conclusion almost with the certainty of absolute demonstration. If
the many existing abuses would account for a great annual decrease, yet
there had been no decrease at all, or a very small one; it clearly
follows, that if the prevailing abuses could be done away, or even
considerably mitigated, we might anticipate in future a great and rapid
annual increase.
[Sidenote: Opponents most powerful objections.]
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