Thus we see that in the Southern colonies, in the year 1700, there were three sharply-defined social grades among the whites,--the upper class, the middle class, and the indented servants; with a caste still lower than the lowest of these, the negro slaves. The status of the bondsmen, both white and black, was morally and socially wretched, and from them sprang the criminal class: the former were the basis of the "poor white trash," which remains to-day a degenerating influence in the South. The presence of degraded laborers made all labor dishonorable, and trade was held in contempt by the country gentleman. The economic condition was bad, there were practically no manufactures, the methods of the planters were wasteful, there prevailed a wretched system of barter based on a fluctuating crop, and finances were unsettled. The manners even of the upper class were often coarse, while those of the lowest whites were not seldom brutal. The people were clannish and narrow, having little communication or sympathy with the outer world. Political power was for the most part in the hands of the aristocratic planters, backed by the middle class; the people at large exercised but slight control over public affairs. Religion was at a low ebb, especially in the established church; Bishop Meade says, "There was not only defective preaching, but, as might be expected, most evil living among the clergy." The professions of law and medicine were scarcely recognized. In looking back upon the life of the Southern colonists at this time we cannot but consider their social, economic, and moral condition as poor indeed; but it must be remembered that there was latent in them a sturdy vitality; these men were of lusty English stock, and when the crisis came, a half century later, they were of the foremost in the ranks and the councils of the Revolution. CHAPTER VI. THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND. (1620-1643). 47. References. Bibliographies.--Winsor, III. 244-256, 283-294; Larned, _Literature of American History_, 72-92; Avery, II. 421-423; Andrews, _Colonial Self-Government_, ch. xx.; Green, _Provincial America_, ch. xix.; M. Wilson, _Reading List on Colonial New England_; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 109-123. Historical Maps.--No. 2, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 2); Doyle, _Colonies_, II.; MacCoun, Winsor, and school histories already cited.