importation of slaves throughout seventy-four years of that period (namely, from 1702 to 1775, both inclusive) into a single English colony, to wit, the island of Jamaica. The total in 497,736, being an average of 6,726 a year. Nor is there a regular increase, for in the decade from 1720 to 1730 there were as many impoted as in the last ten years of the term, the average for each of the years in either decade being about 7,700.

But we shall hereafter furnish proof that to the number of slaves delivered in the colonies we must add at least 25 per cent. to obtain the number shipped on the African coast. This would bring up the annual average exported from Africa for Jamaica to 8,407.

If we assume the total deportation of slaves from Africa in the year 1788 to have been 100,000, which is the French committee's lowest estimate for any year from 1788 to 1840, and if we suppose that there were annually exported during each year of the two centuries preceding 1788 two-fifths only of that number, say 40,000, we shall be assuming the annual total throughout these two centuries at less than five times the number that we know to have been annually exported during seventy-four years of that period to supply the single island of Jamaica. So far as, at this distance of time and with the scanty materials before us, one can judge, the estimate is a moderate one. a

Previous to the year 1588-that is to say, for eighty years after the beginning of the negro slave-trade in 1518-the true average is still more uncertain. The Spanish assientos of that period were usually for the delivery of from 3,000 to 5,000 negroes annually. Let us assume the entire slave-trade by all nations during that period at 5,000 negroes only for each year.

Adopting the data above suggested we obtain the following general results:

Total deportation of negroes by the slave-trade from the year 1818 to the year 1860.

From 1518 to 1588, 80 years [sic], at an average of 5,000 a year................................................400,000

From 1588 to 1788, 200 years, at an average of 40,000 a year..............................................8,000,000

From 1788 to 1860, 72 years, as already estimated ..................................................7,120,000

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Total in 342 years...............................15,520,000

Upward of fifteen millions and a half of human beings forcibly torn from their native country, and doomed to perpetual slavery- themselves and their offspring-in a foreign land. b

a. By a table, already referred to (Part IV, Numbers 1), in the report of the Lords of Council, it appears that as early as 1701 104 British vessels were employed in the slave-trade. The number, however, varied very widely in different years, the lowest number (in 1715) being but 24, and the highest (in 1771) being 192. The table was obtained from the inspector-general of imports and exports.

b The Commission have endeavored in the above estimate to avoid error, except it be on the side of moderation. Very reputable authorities put the importations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries considerably higher than we have assumed them. Bancroft, who appears to have carefully investigated the matter, says:

"The English slave-trade began to attain its great activity after the Assiento Treaty. (That treaty was dated March 26, 1713.) From 1680 to 1700 the English took Africa about 300,000 negroes, or about 15,000 a year. The number during" the continence of the assiento may be averaged not far from 30,000. (it continued for thirty years, to wit, from 1713 to 1744.) Raynal considers the number of negroes exported by all European nations from Africa before 1776 to have been 9,000,000, and the considerate German historian of the slave-trade, Albert Hune deems his statement too small. A careful analysis of the colored population of American at different periods, and the inference to be deduced from the few authentic records of the numbers imported, corrected by a comparison with the authentic