 At first, they were replaced by indentured servants, and then as slavery became all powerful, they were replaced by cheap black slaves, thereby causing further pressures on the remaining colonial working classes to move elsewhere.Nonetheless, the area maintained a slight British colonial majority despite the large numbers of slaves until just prior to the Revolutionary period.Thus, by the time of independence, the area had long ceased being the mixed economy of the 17th century and had become interdependent with the wider British Empire.