"By a 'very accurate census,' taken this year, this was found to be the number of white inhabitants in Maryland:-- +---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+ | | FREE. | SERVANTS. | CONVICTS. | TOTAL. | +---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+ |Men | 24,058 | 3,576 | 1,507 | 29,141 | |Women | 23,521 | 1,824 | 386 | 25,731 | |Boys | 26,637 | 1,048 | 67 | 27,752 | |Girls | 24,141 | 422 | 21 | 24,584 | |---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+ | | 98,357 | 6,870 | 1,981 | 107,208 | +---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+ "By the same account the total number of mulattoes in Maryland amounted to 3,592; and the total number of Negroes, to 42,764. Pres. Stiles' MS. It was reckoned (say the authors of Univ. Hist.), that above 2,000 Negro slaves were annually imported into Maryland."[427] In 1756 the blacks had increased to 46,225, and in 1761 to 49,675. There was nothing in the laws to prohibit the instruction of Negroes, and yet no one dared to brave public sentiment on that point. The churches gave no attention or care to the slaves. During the first half or three-quarters of a century there was an indiscriminate mingling and marrying among the Negroes and white servants; and, although this was forbidden by rigid statutes, it went on to a considerable extent. The half-breed, or Mulatto, population increased;[428] and so did the number of free Negroes. The contact of these two elements--of slaves and convicts--was neither prudent nor healthy. The Negroes suffered from the touch of the moral contagion of this effete matter driven out of European society. Courted as rather agreeable companions by the convicts at first, the Negro slaves were at length treated worse by the ex-convicts than by the most intelligent and opulent slave-dealers in all the Province. And with no rights in the courts, incompetent to hold an office of any kind, the free Negroes were in almost as disagreeable a situation as the slaves.