"The population of Virginia is computed at one hundred fifty thousand
whites and five hundred thousand negroes. There is a still greater
disproportion between the whites and blacks in Maryland, where there are
not more than twenty thousand whites and at least two hundred thousand
negroes. The English imported into these two provinces between seven and
eight thousand yearly. Perhaps the lot of these slaves is not quite so hard
as that of the negroes in the islands; their liberty, it is true, is
irreparably lost in both places, but here they are treated with more
mildness, and are supported upon the same kind of food with their masters;
and if the earth which they cultivate, is moistened with their sweat, it
has never been known to blush with their blood. The American, not at all
industrious by nature, is considerate enough not to expect too much from
his slave, who in such circumstances, has fewer motives to be laborious for
himself."--Abbé Robin, "_New Travels through North America in a series of
letters_," Boston, 1784, p. 48.