An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, Volume 1Hewatt, Alexander
History
An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, Volume 1
Hewatt, Alexander
Georgia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; South Carolina -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
more beneficial to it, than foreign mines of silver and gold. From the
success attending this inconsiderable beginning, projectors of new
schemes for improvement may draw some useful lessons, especially where
lands are good, and the climate favourable to vegetation.
[Sidenote] Occasions a necessity for employing negroes.
With the introduction of rice planting into this country, and the fixing
upon it as its staple commodity, the necessity of employing Africans for
the purpose of cultivation was doubled. So laborious is the task of
raising, beating, and cleaning this article, that though it had been
possible to obtain European servants in numbers sufficient for attacking
the thick forest and clearing grounds for the purpose, thousands and ten
thousands must have perished in the arduous attempt. The utter inaptitude
of Europeans for the labour requisite in such a climate and soil, is
obvious to every one possessed of the smallest degree of knowledge
respecting the country; white servants would have exhausted their
strength in clearing a spot of land for digging their own graves, and
every rice plantation would have served no other purpose than a burying
ground to its European cultivators. The low lands of Carolina, which are
unquestionably the richest grounds in the country, must long have
remained a wilderness, had not Africans, whose natural constitutions were
suited to the clime and work, been employed in cultivating this useful
article of food and commerce.
[Sidenote] Perpetual slavery repugnant to the principles of humanity
and Christianity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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