By an improvement then in the mode of
labour, the work in the islands could be doubled. But if so, what would
become of the argument of his honourable friend? for then only half the
number of the present labourers were necessary."
But the fact, that the slaves in the West Indies do much more work for
themselves in a given time than when they work for their masters, may be
established almost arithmetically, if we will take the trouble of
calculating from authentic documents which present themselves on the
subject. It is surprising, when we look into the evidence examined by
the House of Commons on the subject of the Slave Trade, to find how
little a West Indian slave really does, when he works for his master;
and this is confessed equally by the witnesses on both sides of the
question. One of them (Mr. Francklyn) says, that a labouring man could
not get his bread in Europe if he worked no harder than a Negro.
Another (Mr. Tobin), that no Negro works like a day-labourer in
England. Another (Sir John Dalling), that the general work of Negroes is
not to be called labour. A fourth (Dr. Jackson), that an English
labourer does three times as much work as a Negro in the West Indies.
Now how are these expressions to be reconciled with the common notions
in England of Negro labour? for "to work like a Negro" is a common
phrase, which is understood to convey the meaning, that the labour of
the Negroes is the most severe and intolerable that is known.
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