 The population of the African slaves imported for these plantations is estimated to have been 790,000.Between 1764 and 1771, the average importation of slaves varied between 10,000–15,000, by 1786 about 28,000, and, from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year.However, the inability to maintain slave numbers without constant resupply from Africa meant the slave population, by 1789, totaled 500,000, ruled over by a white population that, by 1789, numbered only 32,000.