but in 1791 there were only 260,000 coloured persons in Jamaica. In sixteen years, the loss was more than 47,000 greater than the entire importation. To say it all in a word: in 1702, Jamaica started with 36,000 slaves; up to 1791, she had imported and retained in bondage 473,000 more; making a total of 509,000 souls, and in 1791, she had only 260,000 to show as the result of her traffic in human souls. There was a waste of 249,000 lives![1]
About 760,000 slaves were imported into Jamaica between 1650 and 1808. If that nimiber seems excessive, diminish it to 700,000, which is certainly below the fact; then add all the children born in the one hundred and eighty-four years which elapsed before the day of emancipation came. Remember that only 311,000 were there to be emancipated in 1834, and it is plain what a dreadful massacre of human lifd had been going on in that garden of the western world,[2]
About 1,700,000 slaves have been imported into the
- ↑ From 1791 to 1808, about 150,000 more were imported, and the slave population in 1808 was only 323,827, showing a waste of more than 86,000 lives in eighteen years! Importation was illegal, but still carried on after the latter date; at least 80,000 must have been smuggled in, in the next nine years.
In 1817 the number of slaves was 346,150 In 1826 it had fallen to 331,119 In 1833 {{{1}}}„ {{{1}}}„ 311,692 After the importation ceased, more pains were taken to preserve the Africans; but the table shows how mortality went on with increased velocity.
Years. Registered Births. Registered Deaths. From 1817 to 1820 24,348 25,104 from„ 1823 to 1826 23,026 25,171 from„ 1826 to 1829 21,728 25,137 - ↑ The same thing took place in all the British West Indies. Look at the following
Table of Slave Population of British Guiana. Number in 1820 77,376 Number in„ 1826 71,382 Number in„ 1832 65,517 Loss in twelve years 11,859 Table of Births and Deaths. Years. Registered Births. Registered Deaths. 1817 to 1820 4868 7140 1820 to 1823 4512 7188 1823 to 1826 4494 7634 1826 to 1829 4684 5731 1829 to 1832 4086 7016
