They had little want of clothes or fuel: they had a house and garden found them; were never imprisoned for debts; nor deterred from marrying through fear of being unable to support a family; their orphans and widows were taken care of, as they themselves were when old and disabled; they had medical attendance without expense; they had private property, which no master ever took front them; and they were resigned to their situation, and looked for nothing beyond it.

Perhaps persons might have been prejudiced by living in the towns, to which slaves were often sent for punishment; and where there were many small proprietors; or by seeing no Negro otherwise than as belonging to the labouring poor; but they appeared to him to want nothing but liberty; and it was only occasionally that they were abused.
There were two prejudices with respect to the colonies, which he would notice.

The first was, that cruel usage occasioned the inequality of births and deaths among the slaves.

But did cruelty cause the excess of deaths above births in the city of London?
No--this excess had other causes.

So it had among the slaves.