Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/241

 any settled or clearly defined purpose in their own minds was concerned: it is not quite so clear, however, that, when their attention was turned to the evident design of the mother country to impose heavy burdens upon them, and when they both felt their own strength, and knew their own unyielding resolve never to submit to tyranny or unlawful imposition of any sort;—we say, when they thought over these things, it is not quite so clear, that the idea of independence had not found place among them, as a thing possible, though not then at all probable. The folly of provoking such discussions in the colonies, we need not enlarge upon: the youthful giant would throw off all parental control soon enough, without provoking him to measure his strength prematurely with his sire.

In 1734, the population of Maryland appears to have been thirty-six thousand taxable inhabitants, by which is meant the white men above sixteen years of age, and negroes, male and female, from sixteen to sixty. The state of society and manners in Maryland was, naturally, very much the same as in Virginia. A printing-press was established in Maryland, in 1726, three years before Virginia enjoyed that privilege. The people of this colony are said to have derived much advantage from their knowledge of the medicinal uses of certain herbs and plants, from the fact that long peace and friendship with the Indians had induced great freedom of intercourse between the white and the red men. The salaries of public officers were very low. In 1732, the Assembly made tobacco a legal tender for the payment of all debts, at a penny per pound, and Indian corn at twenty pence per bushel. Probably the Roman Catholics still were in the majority in the colony: many Protestants, however, settled on the frontier counties of Virginia and Maryland.

The population of North Carolina, in 1710, was six thousand; probably it had considerably increased some years later; it must be confessed, however, as we have in substance noted before, that in the early part of this century the people of North Carolina formed one of the most turbulent, irreligious, and illiterate communities in America. In the year 1700, the population of South Carolina was less than six thousand: in 1723, it amounted to thirty-two thousand; of whom eighteen thousand were slaves. Beside the commercial intercourse with England, an extensive trade, carried on almost entirely in British ships, was kept up between Carolina and the "West Indies, New England, Pennsylvania and New York. Between 1720 and 1730, rice, to the amount of over forty-four thousand tons, was exported from South Carolina: in the year 1730, the negroes amounted to twenty-eight thousand, and large accessions to this class of population continued to be made from year to year. In respect to social life, the habits of the planters were generally frugal, and luxury had not yet obtained much influence. Printing was introduced in 1730, and a newspaper established in 1734. The majority of the inhabitants were attached to tho Church of England: