“ To ascertain the races of men best fitted to inhabit and develop the resources of
different colonies, is a most important inquiry, and one which has hitherto attracted too
little attention, both in this and other countries. \Had the government of France, for
instance, adverted to the absolute impossibility of any population increasing or keeping up
its numbers under an annual mortality of 7 per cent, (being that to which their settlers are
exposed in Algiers), it would never have entered on the wild speculation of cultivating the
soil of Africa by Europeans, nor have wasted one hundred millions sterling, with no other
result than the loss of 100,000 men, who have fallen victims to the climate of that country.
In such questions, military returns, properly organized and properly digested, afford one
of the most useful guides to direct the policy of the colonial legislation: they point out the
limits intended by nature for particular races; and within which alone they can thrive and
increase. They serve to indicate, to the restless wanderers of our race, the boundaries
which neither the pursuit of wealth nor the dreams of ambition should induce them to
pass; and proclaim, in foMble language, that man, like the elements, is controlled by a
Power which hath said: ‘ Hither shalt thou come, but no further.’ ”
We have thus gone through with the statistics of Colonel Tulloch,
which are remarkable for their fulness and the unprejudiced tone m
which they are given. They would seem to show, very strongly,
that certain races cannot become assimilated to certain climates,
though they may to other climates far removed from their original
birth-place. The British soldiers and civilians enjoy even better
health at the Cape Colony than in Great Britain; while the negro,
in most regions out of Africa, whether within the Tropics—as in
the Antilles, or out of them—as at Gibraltar, is gradually exterminated.
We shall now turn our attention to statistics which
confirm, in a remarkable manner, the conclusions of Col. Tulloch,
respecting the influence of foreign tropical climates on negroes; and,
on the other hand, exhibit an increase,' in the same class of population,
in the United States, almost without a parallel, and certainly
unprecedented in any laboring class, taken separatelyfor the
negroes in this country are almost exclusively of that denomi-
nation. .
Tlie following extract is taken from page .83 of tlie cc OoTnpepidium
of the seventh Census" of the United States, by the able superintendent,
J. B. D. DeBow, Esq.
• “ Slavery, which had existed in all the nations of antiquity, and throughout Europe
during the Middle Ages, was introduced at an early day into the Colonies. The first
introduction of African slaves was in 1620, by a Dutch vessel from Africa to Virginia. Ma.
C a r e t , of Pennsylvania, in his work upon the slave-trade, says: ‘ The trade in slaves, to
the American colonies, was too small, before 1753, to attract attention.’ In that year,
M a c f h e r s o n (Annals of Commerce) says 511 were imported into Charleston; and, in 1765-6,
the number of those imported into Georgia (from their valuation) could not have exceeded
1482. From 1783 to 1787, the British West Indies exported to the Colonies 1392 nearly
300 per annum. These West Indies were then the entrepot of the trade; and though they
received nearly 20,000 (M a c f h e r s o n ) in the period above-named, they sent to the Colonies
but that small number proving the demand could not have been very large. After a close
argument, from the ratio of increase since the first census, M r . C a r e t is enabled to recur
back, and compute the population at earlier periods, separating the native-born from those
derived from importations. Setting out with the fact that the slaves (blacks) numbered
55,850 in 1714, he finds that 30,000 of these were brought from Africa.
Importations previous to 1715............... 80 000
between 1715 and 1750............ '90 000
“ 1761 “ 1760................... 35,000
“ 1761 1770................ 74,000
“ 1771 “ 1790..................... 34,000
“ 1790 “ 1808...................... 70,000
Total number imported 333 000
“ The number since 1790 is evidently too small. Charleston alone, in the four years,
1804-5-6-7, imported 39,075. Making, therefore, a correction for such under-estimate,
and a very liberal increase to M r . Ca r e t ’s figures, the whole number of Africans, at all
times, imported into the United States, would not exceed 375,000 to 400,000.
Thus, m the United States, the number of Africans and their descendants is nearly
eight or ten to one of those who were imported; whilst, in the British West Indies, there are
not two persons remaining, for every five of the imported and their descendants. This is seen
from the following: Imported into Jamaica previously to 1817, 700,000 negroes—of whom
and their descendants but 311,000 remained, after 178 years, to be emancipated in 1833.
In the whole British West Indies, imported 1,700,000-of whom and their descendant»
660.000 remained for emancipation.’—Ca r e y . ” 22
Here, then, we have reliable statistics, establishing the astounding
facts, that wbile the blacks in the United States have increased tenfold,
those of the British West Indies have decreased in the proportion
of five to two. Of the whole 1,700,000 and their progeny, but
660.000 remained at the time of emancipation. I have not the data
at hand to speak with precision ; but the fact is notorious, that the
diminution in the number of blacks, in the British West Indies, has
been going on more rapidly since than before their emancipation.
To what causes is all this to be attributed ? This is a difficult question,
at present, to answer. Certainly, no one will contend that the
subjects of Great Britain were less humane to their slaves than those
of the United States ; or that the negroes in the British West Indies
were not in as good a physical condition, in former years, as those
of the United States.23 Climate, then, with the present lights before
us, seems to^have been the leading cause. There is another, which
I have not seen alluded to in these statistics; and which may or
■ * the tìme 1 am writing, the colored population, slave and free, in tbe United States,
e at least ten t° one greater than the, importations. This population, in 1850,
am™“ted to 6,638,808; and, at the present moment, October, 1856, exceeds 4,000,000.
The condition, both moral and physioal, has been steadily improving, in the United
ates ; and is now much better than that of slaves half a century ago, either here or in
M È M Ê P f c [See ampie corroborations of present free-negro mortality, at Jamaica,
e « Memorial of the West Indian merchants and others to Mr. Labouchere ” just pub-
ashed (London Post, Dec. 26, 1856).— G. R. G.]