pp.

477-481.] During the rest of the colonial period the production of rice advanced at an accelerating rate and the slave population increased in proportion, while the whites multiplied somewhat more slowly.

Thus in 1724 the whites were estimated at 14,000, the slaves at 32,000, and the rice export was about 4000 tons; in 1749 the whites were said to be nearly 25,000, the slaves at least 39,000, and the rice export some 14,000 tons, valued at nearly L100,000 sterling;[2] and in 1765 the whites were about 40,000, the slaves about 90,000, and the rice export about 32,000 tons, worth some L225,000.[3] Meanwhile the rule of the Lords Proprietors had been replaced for the better by that of the crown, with South Carolina politically separated from her northern sister; and indigo had been introduced as a supplementary staple.

The Charleston district was for several decades perhaps the most prosperous area on the continent.
[Footnote 2: Governor Glen, in B.R.Carroll, _Historical Collections of South Carolina_ (New York, 1836), II, 218, 234, 266.] [Footnote 3: McCrady, _South Carolina under the Royal Government_ (New York, 1899), pp.

389, 390, 807.] While rice culture did not positively require inundation, it was facilitated by the periodical flooding of the fields, a practice which was introduced into the colony about 1724.