“By a ‘very accurate census,’ taken this year, this was
     found to be the number of white inhabitants in Maryland:—­

+---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+
|         |  FREE. | SERVANTS. | CONVICTS. | TOTAL.  |
+---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+
|Men      | 24,058 |   3,576   |   1,507   |  29,141 |
|Women    | 23,521 |   1,824   |     386   |  25,731 |
|Boys     | 26,637 |   1,048   |      67   |  27,752 |
|Girls    | 24,141 |     422   |      21   |  24,584 |
|---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+
|         | 98,357 |   6,870   |   1,981   | 107,208 |
+---------+--------+-----------+-----------+---------+

“By the same account the total number of mulattoes in Maryland amounted to 3,592; and the total number of Negroes, to 42,764.  Pres.  Stiles’ MS. It was reckoned (say the authors of Univ.  Hist.), that above 2,000 Negro slaves were annually imported into Maryland."[427]

In 1756 the blacks had increased to 46,225, and in 1761 to 49,675.  There was nothing in the laws to prohibit the instruction of Negroes, and yet no one dared to brave public sentiment on that point.  The churches gave no attention or care to the slaves.  During the first half or three-quarters of a century there was an indiscriminate mingling and marrying among the Negroes and white servants; and, although this was forbidden by rigid statutes, it went on to a considerable extent.  The half-breed, or Mulatto, population increased;[428] and so did the number of free Negroes.  The contact of these two elements—­of slaves and convicts—­was neither prudent nor healthy.  The Negroes suffered from the touch of the moral contagion of this effete matter driven out of European society.  Courted as rather agreeable companions by the convicts at first, the Negro slaves were at length treated worse by the ex-convicts than by the most intelligent and opulent slave-dealers in all the Province.  And with no rights in the courts, incompetent to hold an office of any kind, the free Negroes were in almost as disagreeable a situation as the slaves.

From the founding of the colony of Maryland in 1632 down to the Revolutionary War, there is no record left us that any effort was ever made to cure the most glaring evils of slavery.  For the Negro this was one long, starless night of oppression and outrage.  No siren’s voice whispered to him of a distant future, propitious and gracious to hearts almost insensible to a throb of joy, to minds unconscious of the feeblest rays of light.  Being absolute property, it was the right of the master to say how much food, or what quantity of clothing, his slave should have.  There were no rules by which a slave could claim the privilege of ceasing from labor at the close of the day.  No, the master had the same right to work his slaves after nightfall as to drive his horse morning, noon, and night.  Poor clothes, rough and scanty diet, wretched quarters, overworked, neglected in body and mind, the Negroes of Maryland had a sore lot.