Note i-194 — INTRODUCTION

That others in the colonies saw slavery as an economically unsound investment (without any reference to its being malum in se) may be witnessed in an article in the Boston News-Letter (March 3, 1718): "In the previous year there had been eighty burials of Indians and negroes in Boston. The writer argued that the loss of £30 each amounted to £2,400. If white servants had been employed instead, at £15 for the time of each, the 'town had saved £1,200.' A man could procure £12 to £15 to purchase the time of a white servant that could not pay £30 to £50 for a negro or Indian. 'The Whites Strengthens [sic] and Peoples the Country, others do not'" (W. B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, 1620-1789, Boston, 1891, II, 456). Congruent with Franklin's Observations is John Adams's note that "Argument might have some weight in the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts, but the real cause was the multiplication of labouring white people, who would no longer suffer the rich to employ these sable rivals so much to their injury" (ibid., II, 453).