human species, thro' unnatural hardships, and want of necessary
supplies, in the case of the Negroes, is farther confirmed in _an
account of the European settlements in America_, printed London, 1757,
where it is said, par. 6. chap. 11th, "The Negroes in our colonies
endure a slavery more compleat, and attended with far worse
circumstances, than what any people in their condition suffer in any
other part of the world, or have suffered in any other period of time:
Proofs of this are not wanting. The prodigious waste which we experience
in this unhappy part of our species, is a full and melancholy evidence
of this truth. The island of Barbadoes, (the Negroes upon which do not
amount to eighty thousand) notwithstanding all the means which they use
to increase them by propagation, and that the climate is in every
respect (except that of being more wholesome) exactly resembling the
climate from whence they come; notwithstanding all this, Barbadoes lies
under a necessity of an annual recruit of five thousand slaves, to keep
up the stock at the number I have mentioned. This prodigious failure,
which is at least in the same proportion in all our islands, shews
demonstratively that some uncommon and unsupportable hardship lies upon
the Negroes, which wears them down in such a surprising manner."

In an account of part of North America, published by Thomas Jeffery,
1761, the author, speaking of the usage the Negroes receive in the West
India islands, says, "It is impossible for a human heart to reflect upon
the servitude of these dregs of mankind, without in some measure feeling
for their misery, which ends but with their lives.--Nothing can be more
wretched than the condition of this people. One would imagine, they were
framed to be the disgrace of the human species; banished from their
country, and deprived of that blessing, liberty, on which all other
nations set the greatest value, they are in a measure reduced to the
condition of beasts of burden. In general, a few roots, potatoes
especially, are their food, and two rags, which neither screen them from
the heat of the day, nor the extraordinary coolness of the night, all
their covering; their sleep very short; their labour almost continual;
they receive no wages, but have twenty lashes for the smallest fault."
_A thoughtful_ person, who had an opportunity of observing the miserable
condition of the Negroes in one of our West India islands, writes thus,
"I met with daily exe