The mortality rate was generally high under either plan, ranging usually from twenty to thirty per cent, in the seasoning period of three or four years.

The deaths came from diseases brought from Africa, such as the yaws which was similar to syphilis; from debilities and maladies acquired on the voyage; from the change of climate and food; from exposure incurred in running away; from morbid habits such as dirt-eating; and from accident, manslaughter and suicide.[14] [Footnote 14: Long, _Jamaica_, II, 435; Edwards, _West Indies_, book 4, chap.

5; A Professional Planter, _Rules_, chap.

2; Thomas Roughley, _Jamaica Planter's Guide_ (London, 1823), pp.

118-120.] The seasoned slaves were housed by families in separate huts grouped into "quarters," and were generally assigned small tracts on the outskirts of the plantation on which to raise their own provision crops.