were permitted to work for themselves five or six
hours a day. ¹

The beneficent consequences of this humane
legislation appear in the large number of free
colored people everywhere in the Spanish colonies.
In Peru they slightly exceeded the slaves in number;
in Caracas the excess was larger, the free con-
stituting four-sevenths of the colored population; in
Cuba, in 1775, the slaves stood to the free as four
and six-tenths to three. In Jamaica, on the other
hand, the number of free colored persons was less
than one-tenth the number of slaves, and in Hayti
less than one-sixteenth. ²

On the relative humanity of the Spanish laws in
regard to slavery there can be no doubt; but whether
Spanish slaves were more kindly treated than French
or English is a different and more difficult question.
Prevalent public opinion, Depons tells us, believed
they were, but the expresses his dissent in some re-
spects. In his view the slaves suffered from neglect
rather than severities. The Spanish masters were
very solicitous in Caracas that the slaves should say
their prayers, but unconcerned as to whether they
had enough to eat and to wear. Shiftlessness and
not harshness was the cause of their sufferings. ³

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