virtues and capabilities he thought highly, were fading away by reason of being subjected to labor which their natures were incompetent to endure, and which they were most unjustly condemned to, might prefer the misery of the smaller number of another race treated with equal injustice, but more capable of enduring it.  I do not say that Las Casas considered all these things; but, at any rate, in estimating his conduct, we must recollect that we look at the matter centuries after it occurred, and see all the extent of the evil arising from circumstances which no man could then be expected to foresee, and which were inconsistent with the rest of the clerigo’s plans for the preservation of the Indians.

I suspect that the wisest among us would very likely have erred with him; and I am not sure that, taking all his plans together, and taking for granted, as he did then, that his influence at court was to last, his suggestion about the negroes was an impolite one.

    [1] Helps was an English writer who is best known for his social
    essays entitled “Friends in Council.”  He was the author of several
    works on America, including “The Spanish Conquest in America.”

[2] Las Casas was a Dominican, born in Spain, who came to the West Indies in 1502 and devoted himself to protecting the Indians against slavery at the hands of their conquerors.  In 1544 he was made a Mexican bishop.

II

ITS BEGINNINGS IN THE UNITED STATES

(1620)

BY JOHN A. DOYLE[1]

The economical success which had attended the introduction of negroes into the West Indies made it almost certain that the American colonies would betake themselves to the same resource.  The first introduction of negroes is commonly placed in the year 1620, when a Dutch ship landed twenty of them for sale at Jamestown.  For some years their numbers increased but slowly.  In 1649 Virginia contained only three hundred.  By 1661 they had increased to two thousand, while the indented servants were four times that number.  Twenty-two years later, if we may trust Culpepper’s statement, the number of white servants was nearly doubled, while that of the negroes had only increased by one-half.  Of their numbers and proportions in Maryland and North Carolina we have no definite evidence.  In South Carolina negro slavery seems to have been almost from the outset the prevalent form of industry.

As early as 1708 we are told that three-fifths of the population were blacks.  This alteration in the relative numbers of white servants and black slaves was accelerated by a change which had come over the commercial policy of the English Government.  In 1662 the Royal African Company was incorporated.  At the head of it was the Duke of York, and the King himself was a large shareholder.  The chief profit of this company was derived from the exportation of negroes from Guinea to the plantations.  The King and his brother henceforth had a direct interest in limiting the supply of indented servants, and it is not unlikely that this explains why Jeffreys for once deviated into the paths of humanity and justice....