Even though slavery was permitted, northern states characteristically had far smaller slave populations than the South. Few slave ships arrived in New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, which were instead trade centers for manufactured goods. Slaves that lived in the North were often domestic servants or bondsmen to small farmers and rural ironworks. Unlike in the South, Northern farms were not large-scale enterprises that focused on producing one cash crop. They were often smaller, more agriculturally diversified enterprises that required fewer laborers. Hence, the need for enslaved bondsmen gradually dwindled--especially as rapid soil depletion and the growth of industry in northern cities attracted many rural northerners to wage labor in cities.
