their slaves. Comparatively speaking, they are well clothed and fed in
that province, which while they continue in health fits and qualifies
them for their task. When they happen to fall sick, they are carefully
attended by a physician; in which respect their condition is better than
that of the poorest class of labourers in Europe. But in the West Indies,
we have been told, they are both covered with rags and have a scanty
portion of provisions allowed them, in which case urgent necessity and
pinching hunger must often urge them to pilfer, and commit many injuries
to which otherwise they would have no inclination, and for which they
incur severe punishment. In cases of violence and murder committed on
these wretched creatures, it is next to impossible to have the
delinquents brought to punishment; for either the grand jury refuse to
find the bill, or the petty jury bring in the verdict not guilty. When
they are tempted to fly to the woods to shun severe labour or punishment
then they may be hunted down or shot as wild beasts. When whipped to
death, the murderer, after all, is only subjected to an inconsiderable
fine, or a short imprisonment, by the provincial laws. It is impossible
that the Author of nature ever intended human beings for such a wretched
fate; for surely he who gave life, gave also an undoubted right to the
means of self-preservation and happiness, and all the common rights and
privileges of nature.

But there is another circumstance which renders their case still more
wretched and deplorable. Good masters and mistresses, whose humanity and
a sense of interest will not permit them to treat their negroes in a
harsh manner, do not always reside at their plantations. Many planters
have several settlements at considerable distances from the place where
they usually live, which they visit perhaps only three or four times in a
year. In their absence the charge of negroes is given to overseers, many
of whom are ignorant and cruel, and all totally disinterested in the