climate. "New settlers in all countries and climates are subject to many hardships, especially such as are in low and indigent circumstances; but those of the first settlers of Carolina must have equalled, if not surpassed, every thing of the kind to which men in any age have been exposed." He describes the ravages of smallpox, yellow fever and other diseases on both the native and immigrant population. Hewat describes the introduction of African slaves, and maintains that "Hawkins had no idea of perpetual slavery, but expected they would be treated as free servants, after they had by their labours brought their masters an equivalent for the expense of their purchase... Hence arose that horrid and inhuman practice of dragging Africans into slavery; which has since been so pursued, in defiance of every principle of justice and religion... Nature has given the people of the one continent no superiority over those of the other; the advantages of Europeans were the effects only of art and improvement." Hewat saw Africans as more suited to the SC climate, and essential to the Southern Economy, but imagined an indentured servant system similar to that which existed for white immigrants, and supposed that the conditions of slavery would incite them to revolt, as indeed they did at Stono in September 1739. "At this time there were above forty thousand negroes in the province, a fierce, hardy and strong race, whose constitutions were adapted to the warm climate, whose nerves were braced with constant labour, and who could scarcely be supposed to be contented with that oppressive yoke under which they groaned." Hewat's own brother Andrew, used Black labour on his plantation, and after the Revolution at least one followed him into exile, first to Nova Scotia, and then back to Roxburgh. Indeed, many Black Loyalists fought against the revolution, and left with White Loyalists as a result. The economic requirement for Black labour in the South, and the growing opposition to slavery in Britain, may have been one of the roots of the revolution in the South, just as it was later in the civil war. In his history, Hewat points to errors made by the British Administration, and is careful not to criticise unduly the revolutionaries, setting out their complaints in some detail about what they saw as unfair taxation, or indeed any taxation at all by a parliament they claimed could not,