286-298; H.S.Cooley, "Slavery in New Jersey" (Johns Hopkins University _Studies_, XIV, nos.

9, 10), pp.
47-50; F.B.Lee, _New Jersey as a Colony and as a State_ (New York, 1912), IV, 25-48.] Thus from Pennsylvania eastward the riddance of slavery was procured or put in train, generally by the device of emancipating the _post nati_; and in consequence the slave population in that quarter dwindled before the middle of the nineteenth century to a negligible residue.

To the southward the tobacco states, whose industry had reached a somewhat stationary condition, found it a simple matter to prohibit the further importation of slaves from Africa.

Delaware did this in 1776, Virginia in 1778, Maryland in 1783 and North Carolina in 1794.

But in these commonwealths as well as in their more southerly neighbors, the contemplation of the great social and economic problems involved in disestablishing slavery daunted the bulk of the citizens and impelled their representatives to conservatism.