By the late 17th century, settlers had spread over much of Maryland, primarily along the rivers and creeks that supplied oceanborne shipping. Tobacco prices encouraged further planting in both Maryland and Virginia. Some of the settlers had large plantations, but most worked smaller tobacco farms averaging 100 hectares (250 acres) in size, sometimes with the help of white indentured servants or black slaves from Africa or the Caribbean. In the 1690s, when slave prices fell and the supply of w
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