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Page 26
The consequence of this monopoly enjoyed by the Genoese merchants was
that negroes were sold at a great price, of which there are frequent
complaints. Both Las Casas and Pasamonte--rarely found in
accord--suggested to the King that it would be better to pay the
twenty-five thousand ducats and resume the license, or to abridge its
term. Figueroa, writing to the Emperor from Sonto Domingo, says:
"Negroes are very much in request; none have come for about a year. It
would have been better to have given De Bresa the customs
duties--_i.e._, the duties that had been usually paid on the
importation of slaves--than to have placed a prohibition." I have
scarcely a doubt that the immediate effect of the measure adopted in
consequence of the clerigo's suggestion was greatly to check that
importation of negro slaves which otherwise, had the license been
general, would have been very abundant.
Before quitting this part of the subject, something must be said for
Las Casas which he does not allege for himself. This suggestion of his
about the negroes was not an isolated one. Had all his suggestions
been carried out, and the Indians thereby been preserved, as I firmly
believe they might have been, these negroes might have remained a very
insignificant number in the general population. By the destruction of
Indians a void in the laborious part of the community was being
constantly created, which had to be filled up by the labor of negroes.
The negroes could bear the labor in the mines much better than the
Indians; and any man who perceived that a race, of whose Christian
virtues and capabilities he thought highly, were fading away by reason
of being subjected to labor which their natures were incompetent to
endure, and which they were most unjustly condemned to, might prefer
the misery of the smaller number of another race treated with equal
injustice, but more capable of enduring it. I do not say that Las
Casas considered all these things; but, at any rate, in estimating his
conduct, we must recollect that we look at the matter centuries after
it occurred, and see all the extent of the evil arising from
circumstances which no man could then be expected to foresee, and
which were inconsistent with the rest of the clerigo's plans for the
preservation of the Indians.
I suspect that the wisest among us would very likely have erred with
him; and I am not sure that, taking all his plans together, and taking
for granted, as he did then, that his influence at court was to last,
his suggestion about the negroes was an impolite one.
[1] Helps was an English writer who is best known for his social
essays entitled "Friends in Council." He was the author of several
works on America, including "The Spanish Conquest in America."
[2] Las Casas was a Dominican, born in Spain, who came to the West
Indies in 1502 and devoted himself to protecting the Indians
against slavery at the hands of their conquerors. In 1544 he was
made a Mexican bishop.
II
ITS BEGINNINGS IN THE UNITED STATES
(1620)
BY JOHN A. DOYLE[1]
The economical success which had attended the introduction of negroes
into the West Indies made it almost certain that the American colonies
would betake themselves to the same resource. The first introduction
of negroes is commonly placed in the year 1620, when a Dutch ship
landed twenty of them for sale at Jamestown. For some years their
numbers increased but slowly. In 1649 Virginia contained only three
hundred. By 1661 they had increased to two thousand, while the
indented servants were four times that number. Twenty-two years later,
if we may trust Culpepper's statement, the number of white servants
was nearly doubled, while that of the negroes had only increased by
one-half. Of their numbers and proportions in Maryland and North
Carolina we have no definite evidence. In South Carolina negro slavery
seems to have been almost from the outset the prevalent form of
industry.
As early as 1708 we are told that three-fifths of the population were
blacks. This alteration in the relative numbers of white servants and
black slaves was accelerated by a change which had come over the
commercial policy of the English Government. In 1662 the Royal African
Company was incorporated. At the head of it was the Duke of York, and
the King himself was a large shareholder. The chief profit of this
company was derived from the exportation of negroes from Guinea to the
plantations. The King and his brother henceforth had a direct interest
in limiting the supply of indented servants, and it is not unlikely
that this explains why Jeffreys for once deviated into the paths of
humanity and justice....
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