Furthermore, ethical and economic influences interacted with subtle and powerful force. Barring all other considerations, the cost of a slave was a considerable item, not to be afforded by a struggling settler; hence slavery never attained magnitude on the frontier. Before 1700 Pennsylvania was all frontier; hence it had very few negroes. In the period from 1700 to about 1750 the country between the Delaware and the Susquehanna was filled up, and the early conditions largely disappeared. It was then that the greatest number of negroes was introduced. In the period between the middle of the century and the Revolution this older country became well developed and prosperous; farms became larger and better cultivated; there were numerous respectable manufacturers and wealthy merchants. These men could easily afford to have slaves, and large importations might have been expected; but there was no great influx of negroes. Economic conditions were favorable, but ethical influences worked strongly against it. In this eastern half of Pennsylvania two racial elements predominated: the Germans and the English Quakers. The Germans had abstained from slave-holding from the first;[49] the Quakers were now coming to abhor it.[50] The same play of causes was seen again in the "old West." After 1750 in the mountains and valleys beyond the Susquehanna the earlier frontier conditions were lived over again. Here the settlers were largely Scotch-Irish, and had no dislike for slavery, but as yet the conditions of their life did not favor it. When finally western Pennsylvania passed out of the frontier stage, and its inhabitants could purchase negroes, the days of slavery in Pennsylvania were nearly over.[51] For all of these reasons from first to last Pennsylvania's slave population remained small. FOOTNOTES: [1] Breviate. Dutch Records, no. 2, fol. 5. In _2 Pennsylvania Archives_, XVI, 234. _Cf._ Hazard, _Annals of Pennsylvania_, 49. The "Proposed Freedoms and Exemptions for New Netherland," 1640, say, "The Company shall exert itself to provide the Patroons and Colonists, on their order with as many Blacks as possible".... _2 Pa. Arch._, V, 74. [2] C. T. Odhner. "The Founding of New Sweden, 1637-1642", translated by G. B. Keen in _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, III, 277. [3] Hazard, _Annals of Pennsylvania_, 331; O'Callaghan, _Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York_, II, 213, 214. The Report of the Board of Accounts on New Netherland, Dec. 15, 1644, had spoken of the need of negroes, the economy of their labor, and had recommended the importation of large numbers. _2 Pa. Arch._, V, 88. See also Davis, _History of Bucks County_, 793.