Because of its limited land area, Bermuda has had difficulty with over-population. In the first two centuries of settlement, it relied on steady human emigration to keep the population manageable.[citation needed] Before the American Revolution more than ten thousand Bermudians (over half of the total population through the years) gradually emigrated, primarily to <answer>the Southern United States</answer>. As Great Britain displaced Spain as the dominant European imperial power, it opened up more land for colonial development. A steady trickle of outward migration continued. With seafaring the only real industry in the early decades, by the end of the 18th century, at least a third of the island's manpower was at sea at any one time.
Where did a large number of Bermudians emigrate to before the American Revolution?
the Southern United States