1715 1775 New Hampshire ........ 150 629 Massachusetts ........ 2,000 3,500 Rhode Island ......... 500 4,373 Connecticut .......... 1,500 5,000 New York ............. 4,000 15,000 New Jersey ........... 1,500 7,600 Pennsylvania ........} 2,500 10,000 Delaware ............} 9,000 Maryland ............. 9,500 80,000 Virginia ............. 23,000 165,000 North Carolina ....... 3,700 75,000 South Carolina ....... 10,500 110,000 Georgia .............. 16,000 ------ ------- 58,850 501,102 Of the half million slaves in this country at the opening of the Revolution, 450,000 were in the Southern Colonies. The reasons for this are found in the difference in economical conditions and political and social customs which separated the Northern and Southern Colonies before the Revolution. The Northern group devoted themselves mainly to fishing, commerce and farming. The soil, especially in New England, was unpromising for the production of great staples, and the result in the North was concentration of the people, growth of town life, distribution of political power, great freedom of speech and press, and a wide discussion of political principles. The South devoted herself wholly to the production of three great staples, rice, indigo and tobacco, and the result in the South was just the reverse of that in the North. Great plantations were established, few cities of any importance sprang up, manufacturing did not thrive, the South importing almost every article of use or luxury. Political power was in the hands of a few, and the three great staples demanded cheap labor, working under the most destructive conditions. Thus, influenced almost entirely by environment and economical and political development, the North became the scene of freedom to individuals and protection to industries, because these things were absolutely essential to the existence and happiness of the people; and the South, by the same necessity, was dedicated to slavery and free trade.