In 1730 the population of Rhode Island was, whites, 15,302; Indians, 985; Negroes, 1,648; total, 17,935.  In 1749 there were 28,439 whites, and 3,077 Negroes.  Indians were not given this year.  In 1756 the whites numbered 35,939, the Negroes 4,697.  In 1774 Rhode Island contained 9,439 families, Newport had 9,209 inhabitants.  The whites in the entire colony numbered 54,435, the Negroes, 3,761, and the Indians, 1,482.[474] It will be observed that the Negro population fell off between the years 1749 and 1774.  It is accounted for by the fact mentioned before,—­that many ran away on ships that came into the Province.

The Negroes received better treatment at this time than at any other period during the existence of the colony.  There was a general relaxation of the severe laws that had been so rigidly enforced.  They took great interest in public meetings, devoured with avidity every scrap of news regarding the movements of the Tory forces, listened with rapt attention to the patriotic conversations of their masters, and when the storm-cloud of war broke were as eager to fight for the independence of North America as their masters.

FOOTNOTES: 

[450] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. i. p. 243.

[451] Bancroft, vol. i. 5th ed. p. 175.

[452] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. iii. pp. 492, 493.

[453] There is no law making the manufacturing of whiskey legal in the United States; and yet the United-States government makes laws to regulate the business, and collects a revenue from it.  It exists by and with the consent of the government, and, in a sense, is legal.

[454] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. iv. p. 34.

[455] I have searched diligently for the Act of February, among the Rhode-Island Collections and Records, but have not found it.  It was evidently more comprehensive than the above Act.

[456] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol iv. p. 50.

[457] R.I.  Col.  Recs, vol. iv. pp. 53, 54.

[458] R.I.  Coll.  Recs., vol. iv. pp. 54, 55.

[459] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol iv. p. 59.

[460] J. Carter Brown’s Manuscripts, vol. viii.  Nos. 506, 512.

[461] It was a specious sort of reasoning.  I learn that the bank over on the corner is to be robbed to-night at twelve o’clock.  Shall I go and rob it at ten o’clock; because, if I do not do so, another person will, two hours later?

[462] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. iv. pp. 133-135.

[463] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. iv. pp. 191-193.

[464] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. iv p. 225.

[465] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. iv. pp. 423, 424.

[466] Ibid., p. 330.

[467] Ibid., vol. iv. p. 209.

[468] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. iv. p. 454.

[469] Ibid., vol. iv. p. 471.

[470] Ibid., vol. iv. pp. 415, 416.

[471] R.I.  Col.  Recs., vol. v. pp. 72, 73.