Beverley's "History of Virginia." See also in
Jefferson's "Memoirs" some curious details concerning the introduction
of negroes into Virginia, and the first Act which prohibited the
importation of them in 1778.]

[Footnote g: The number of slaves was less considerable in the North,
but the advantages resulting from slavery were not more contested there
than in the South. In 1740, the Legislature of the State of New York
declared that the direct importation of slaves ought to be encouraged
as much as possible, and smuggling severely punished in order not to
discourage the fair trader. (Kent's "Commentaries," vol. ii. p. 206.)
Curious researches, by Belknap, upon slavery in New England, are to be
found in the "Historical Collection of Massachusetts," vol. iv. p. 193.
It appears that negroes were introduced there in 1630, but that the
legislation and manners of the people were opposed to slavery from the
first; see also, in the same work, the manner in which public opinion,
and afterwards the laws, finally put an end to slavery.]

A century had scarcely elapsed since the foundation of the colonies,
when the attention of the planters was struck by the extraordinary
fact, that the provinces which were comparatively destitute of slaves,
increased in population, in wealth, and in prosperity more rapidly than
those which contained the greatest number of negroes. In the former,
however, the inhabitants were obliged to cultivate the soil themselves,
or by hired laborers; in the latter they were furnished with hands for
which they paid no wages; yet although labor and expenses were on
the one side, and ease with economy on the other, the former were in
possession of the most advantageous system. This consequence seemed to
be the more difficult to explain, since the settlers, who all belonged
to the same European race, had the same habits, the same civilization,
the same laws, and their shades of difference were extremely slight.

Time, however, continued to advance, and the Anglo-Americans, spreading
beyond the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, penetrated farther and farther
into the solitudes of the West; they met with a new soil and an unwonted
climate; the obstacles which opposed them were of the most various
character; their races intermingled, the inhabitants of the South went
up towards the North, those of the North descended to the South; but in
the midst of all these causes, the same result occurred at every step,
and in gen