FIGURE 3.2 African Populations in the British West Indies, Northern Colonies, and Southern Colonies, 1650–1750 In 1650 the African population in the British West Indies already far exceeded that in mainland North America. Over the next century, the number of Africans and African Americans increased significantly on the mainland. But the growth was far greater in the southern than in the northern colonies, reaching 40 percent in the Chesapeake and Lower South colonies by the mid-eighteenth century.Source: Data from Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman, Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery.