existed, must have witnessed the total annihilation of the negro race
within half a century.

Viewing these facts, not a doubt can, I think, be entertained that the
number of negroes imported into the island and retained for its
_consumption_ was more than double the number that existed there in
1817, and could scarcely have been less than 750,000, and certainly,
at the most moderate estimate, not less than 700,000. If to these we
were to add the children that must have been born on the island in the
long period of 178 years, and then to reflect that all who remained
for emancipation amounted to only 311,000, we should find ourselves
forced to the conclusion that slavery was here attended with a
destruction of life almost without a parallel in the history of any
civilized nation.

With a view to show that Jamaica cannot be regarded as an unfavourable
specimen of the system, the movement of population in other colonies
will now be given.

In 1764, the slave population of ST. VINCENT'S was 7414. In 1787,
twenty-three years after, it was 11,853, having increased 4439;
whereas, _in four only_ of those years, 1784-87, the _net_ import of
negroes had been no less than 6100.[5] In 1805, the number was 16,500,
the increase having been 4647; whereas the _net_ import in _three
only_, out of _eighteen_ years, had been 1937. What was the cause of
this, may be seen by the comparative view of deaths, and their
compensation by births, at a later period:--

Year 1822.................... 4205 deaths, 2656 births.
" 1825.................... 2106 " 1852 "