How did the practice of slavery in the Chesapeake region change around the end of the 1700s?

- Gradual abolition laws were passed in Maryland and Delaware.

- Many enslaved people were freed and began living in free Black communities.

- A boom in the tobacco economy led to a sharp rise in the number of enslaved people brought to the region.

- New rules made it easier for slaveholders to privately emancipate the people they enslaved.