ants (Prince Hall a very intelligent Black man Aged
57 & Grand-
Master of the African lodge in Boston) thinks that they
were most numerous about the year 1745; what their
proportion was at that time to the whites can not be precisely
ascertained; but I think it could not have been more than 1 to 40.
As white labourers were always to be had and
were preferable on some accounts to blacks, particu-
larly in regard to the climate which is (in winter)
unfavourable to the African Constitution;* there was
not much encouragement to the importation of
them & they never were so prolific here as the whites.
The greater part of
Many families both in the maritime & country towns
were wholly without them There were always more
Blacks in the maritime towns than in the Country
& I suppose
Boston had nearly one fourth part or
more of the whole
Number. I am Excepting such Tradesmen as
Rope-makers, Anchor smiths & Ship Carpenters who
employ a great No of hands scarcely any family
had more than two; [?] some
not more than one;
& many had none at all.
In the Country I never heard of more than 3 or
4 on a farm, excepting in one Instance at Chelsea, where
the
No was 16 & this was reckoned a
prodigy a distinguished singularity; but the
greater No of farmers
husbandmen preferred white to black labourers, to
black.
[Written sideways in right margin] * The blacks were always more
sickly & infirm & died in greater
greater proportion than the whites. For this reason I have not
made many use of bills of mortality in estimating their
numbers compared with ye whites