This
number remained almost stationary until about 1663 when it began to
dwindle further until the low water mark was reached, about 1737, and
the entire population of the Spanish portion of the island was
estimated at but 6,000. Timely tariff concessions revived trade and
encouraged immigration and new importations of slaves the number of
inhabitants increased rapidly and in 1785 was reckoned at 150,000,
including 30,000 slaves and a considerable proportion of free colored
persons. A decade later saw the beginning of the negro insurrection
in the French section of Santo Domingo; the horrors attending this
war, the invasion of the Spanish colony by the Haitians, the menace of
further invasions, the frequent changes of sovereignty, and adverse
economic conditions, produced an exodus in the course of which the
great majority of the white population abandoned the island, many with
all their slaves and dependents. A few returned, but in 1809 it was
calculated that the inhabitants of Spanish Santo Domingo numbered
104,000 and in 1819 but 63,000, of whom the greater number were
colored.
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