Section I. — This Proposition shewn to be highly probable from the Native of the Case

Having demonstrated that the forced labour on sugar estates is oppressively severe, in all the various views I have taken of it, in its duration, its intensity, and the means of its exaction, and that the consequences are highly cruel and pernicious; I have next, in pursuance of the plan proposed, to state “the ordinary treatment of the slaves in respect of “food, clothing, and other necessaries, under the general head “of maintenance:” and first, as to the most important article, food.

But here, as in the preceding branches of my subject, I have prepossessions to encounter, as well as bold and artful and assiduous misrepresentations of the actual practice, to refute; I will, therefore, again request my readers to reflect on the inherent probabilities of the case, before I state the facts to them, and adduce the evidence.

It was shewn that the natural and inevitable tendency of the master's avarice or selfishness, armed with irresistible power, and even of his necessities, consequent on the eager competition that has long prevailed between planters, both British and foreign, in the supply of the European markets with sugar, must be to cheapen the forced labour employed in its production, to a degree highly oppressive upon the helpless enslaved workmen by whom the commodity is raised.