It has appeared also, in the second part of this Essay, that as nature made, every man’s body and mind his own, so no just person can be reduced to slavery against his own consent.  Do the unfortunate offspring ever consent to be slaves?—­They are slaves from their birth.—­Are they guilty of crimes, that they lose their freedom?—­They are slaves when they cannot speak.—­Are their parents abandoned?  The crimes of the parents cannot justly extend to the children.

Thus then must the tyrannical receivers, who presume to sentence the children of slaves to servitude, if they mean to dispute upon the justice of their cause; either allow them to have been brutes from their birth, or to have been guilty of crimes at a time, when they were incapable of offending the very King of Kings.

* * * * *

CHAP.  IV.

But to return to the narration.  When the wretched Africans are conveyed to the plantations, they are considered as beasts of labour, and are put to their respective work.  Having led, in their own country, a life of indolence and ease, where the earth brings forth spontaneously the comforts of life, and spares frequently the toil and trouble of cultivation, they can hardly be expected to endure the drudgeries of servitude.  Calculations are accordingly made upon their lives.  It is conjectured, that if three in four survive what is called the seasoning, the bargain is highly favourable.  This seasoning is said to expire, when the two first years of their servitude are completed:  It is the time which an African must take to be so accustomed to the colony, as to be able to endure the common labour of a plantation, and to be put into the gang.  At the end of this period the calculations become verified, twenty thousand[059] of those, who are annually imported, dying before the seasoning is over.  This is surely an horrid and awful consideration:  and thus does it appear, (and let it be remembered, that it is the lowest calculation that has been ever made upon the subject) that out of every annual supply that is shipped from the coast of Africa, forty thousand lives[060] are regularly expended, even before it can be said, that there is really any additional stock for the colonies.

When the seasoning is over, and the survivors are thus enabled to endure the usual task of slaves, they are considered as real and substantial supplies.  From this period[061] therefore we shall describe their situation.