Delaware, as before stated, by her constitution adopted in 1776, prohibited the further introduction of slaves. Virginia did the same thing by her law adopted in 1778. Pennsylvania, whose legislature had ceased to be under the control of the Quakers, as they refused to take part in the Revolution, adopted a law in 1780, prohibiting the further introduction of slaves and giving freedom to all children of slave mothers born after its passage. Massachusetts incorporated a declaration in her bill of rights adopted in 1780, that "all men are born free and equal," and under that declaration it was decided by the Supreme Court of that State in 1783, that slavery was prohibited. It cannot be claimed that this declaration was intended to have that effect, for if such had been the case it would not have been left to judicial interpretation to give it, but an express provision would have been incorporated on the subject. It was a species of judicial legislation which was submitted to because no important interest was at stake. There were a little over 6,000 slaves in Massachusetts at the date of the Revolution, distributed in small numbers among the owners and employed mostly as household servants. The population was largely engaged in commerce, fisheries, manufactures, etc., and the character of the agriculture was not at all adapted to slave labor. Nothing of consequence therefore, was to be gained by contesting the validity of the decision, and it was the easiest way of getting rid of the matter by quiet submission. New Hampshire adopted a similar clause in her second constitution in 1783, and under that it was held that freedom was guaranteed to all children born after its adoption. Maryland adopted in 1783, laws in regard to the introduction of slaves similar to those of Virginia. Connecticut and Rhode Island, in 1784, adopted laws on the subject of slavery similar to those of Pennsylvania. The effect of these laws and decisions was to put an end to the slave trade in all of the states but North and South Carolina and Georgia; to abolish it in Massachusetts and provide for its gradual extinction in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, while it still remained as before in the other states. It has been alleged, and probably was true, that a large number of the slaves in the northern states were carried to the South and sold there, to avoid the operation of the emancipation measures which were initiated. This allegation receives very strong confirmation from a comparison of the free colonies' population at the north at different periods, with the number of slaves known to be there at the date of the institution of emancipation measures, when taken in connection with the increase to that colored population, from freed slaves and runaways from the South.