Volume 2, Chapter 22, Slavery in South Carolina
South Carolina distinguished itself in the 18th century for being the first southern colony to develop a great agricultural staple other than tobacco.
First grown in South Carolina in 1694, rice very rapidly became the staple of the colony, with the Port of Charleston the center of the rice trade.
So successful was the expansion of rice grown on large plantations in the coastal swamps
that Britain added it to the enumerated list of commodities as early as the Navigation Act of 1704.
By 1722, South Carolina was exporting nine million pounds of rice per year.
And by 1750, the total had increased to 27 million.
By mid-century, South Carolina had begun to grow another staple crop, which rose swiftly to second rank beneath rice.
This was indigo dye, introduced successfully into the colony in 1744 by Eliza Lucas, who later married Chief Justice Charles Pinckney.
Also grown on lowland swamps, indigo proved a natural seasonal complement to rice,
and large plantations intensively staffed with Negro slaves proved to be ideal for combining the two products.
By the mid-1750s, indigo production in the colony was in high gear and 500,000 pounds were being exported annually.
The rice and indigo plantations differed significantly from the tobacco plantations of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay area.
The former were smaller, more concentrated, and more intensively cultivated. That is, they required considerably more slaves per acre.
Hence, the proportion of Negro slaves to whites became considerably higher in South Carolina.
In 1750, the Southern colonies had the following ratio of Negroes to whites.
In Thousands, Maryland, Negros 49, Whites 115, Virginia, Negros 141, Whites 199, North
South Carolina, Negroes 34, whites 76, South Carolina, 39, 25.
As we can see, the tobacco colonies had considerably fewer Negroes than whites, whereas Negro slaves
outnumbered whites in South Carolina by a good margin.
South Carolina cultivation taking place in swampland was also much unhealthier than the
tobacco growing of the upper south. The plantation owners, more fortunate than their slaves,
could escape the malarial climate and did so choosing to live in mansions in Charleston
rather than on their estates. This contrasted to the decentralized plantation life of the
Another and more important reason for the intensive growth of Charleston was the shallowness of the rivers, which prevented ships from going directly to the plantation wharves, as in the upper south, hence a central port became economically necessary. Rice and indigo cultivation became economic only through the large-scale use of slaves, but indigo needed an additional subsidy to become profitable.
Great Britain in 1748 granted a bounty of six pence for each pound of indigo exported to England.
There were slave plots and insurrections in many American colonies, but the especial brutality toward
and the high concentration of slaves made South Carolina the focal point for slave rebellion.
Slave Rebellion. As early as 1702, the South Carolina Assembly reprimanded the constables
of Charleston for negligence in controlling the slaves, reprimanded a William Harvey of
the city for allowing cabals of Negroes at his house, and listened to the saga of a Negro
slave who had threatened his master with a general slave revolt in the colony. In the
In the spring of 1711, the South Carolinians were terrified by an uprising of several armed
Negroes. Led by a slave named Sebastian, they plundered the plantations of their oppressors.
Presumably the fear came not from the few marauders, but from the apprehension that
they might light the spark of a general slave revolution in the colony. Governor Robert
Bert Gibbs lamented to the assembly how insolent and mischievous the Negroes are become and
recommended some exemplary form of punishment as well as a possible improvement in the slave's
subsistence standard. In 1713, a slave plot in the Goose Creek section was betrayed and
stamped out, the assembly rewarding the Negro informer with a gift of five pounds sterling.
A plan for a massive slave revolt goaded by an economic depression was uncovered in 1720,
and a considerable number of Negroes were arrested, burned, hanged or banished.
A report to the King the following year declared in horror that the black slaves have lately
attempted and were very near succeeding in a new revolution which would probably have
have been attended by the utter extirpation of all Your Majesty's subjects in this province.
In 1729, a severe epidemic of influenza decimated the ranks of the South Carolina Negroes. Perhaps
goaded by this extra burden, the slaves planned another massive revolt the following year.
But the Negroes differed over tactics, some urging each group of slaves to destroy its
The same year, several runaway slaves committed robberies, and the governor offered the very
large reward of twenty pounds a head for each slave captured. In 1731 and 1732, some runaway
slaves were shot and several other negroes killed or executed. Furthermore, the colony
Many fretted over the flight of some slaves to freedom in the Spanish town of St. Augustine
in Florida.
Indeed, the War of England, under Spain, led the embittered Spaniards to offer freedom
to the slaves of the English.
The official policy of welcome to Negro refugees began in the fall of 1733, when the Spanish
crown announced that all fugitive slaves reaching Florida would be permitted to remain there
In 1738 a group of liberated Negroes was established in a town north of St. Augustine and the policy
of welcome to fugitives was again proclaimed.
The attractiveness of St. Augustine coupled with a severe famine in 1737 led the Negroes
to a series of uprisings.
In the latter year three slaves were arrested for conspiracy against the peace of this government.
Complaints mounted by flight of slaves, individuals and groups, to the haven of St. Augustine.
Indeed, a virtual state of guerrilla warfare erupted, with much assassination of masters
and uncovering of slave conspiracies. In late 1738, a group of South Carolina slaves rebelled
and fought their way through English America to reach freedom in Florida.
In early 1739, a great slave plot was uncovered for massive armed uprising in flight to Florida.
But slave flights continued and one group was joined by two whites. In April, the South
Carolina legislature passed a bill for more effective suppression of slave revolts, but
this did not stop a revolt by about twenty slaves, led by one Jimmy at Stono, twenty
The Rebels raided an arsenal, killing two guards, appropriated considerable arms and
ammunition, and made their way south. The embittered slaves burned several buildings
and killed all whites in their path, except an innkeeper named Wallace, who was known
to be a good man and kind to his slaves. The Jimmy Rebellion ignited a spark among the
and another lengthy skirmish, but ten Negroes managed to escape to freedom. Negro and Indian
slaves who informed on the refugees were rewarded very handsomely by the government. In mid-1740,
another major slave plot, this time centering in Charleston, was betrayed in advance by a
slave named Peter, so that an uprising of nearly two hundred virtually unarmed slaves
was confronted by an armed troop. The result could only be a rout. Fifty of the recaptured
Negroes were hanged in batches of ten a day to intimidate the other Negroes. The betrayer,
Peter, was rewarded with clothing and cash. During 1740 and 1741, many fires broke out
in Charleston, some of which, at least, were examples of Negro protest. A Charleston grand
In July, 1937, a German jury in March 1740 denounced the activities of such white friends of Negro freedom as Hugh Bryan, who wrote a monograph warning the government of the destruction of Charleston and deliverance of the Negroes from their servitude. Bryan's book was forcibly suppressed by the government. Joining Hugh Bryan in a call for Negro liberation were Jonathan Bryan, William Gilbert and Robert Ogle.
After out of fire to its privileged position, the Charleston government executed a woman
for committing arson, even burned a man to death in August 1741 for setting fire to a
house supposedly with the evil intent of burning down the remaining part of the town, and convicted
two slaves of setting fire to Charleston's arsenal.
In addition to brutal repression, South Carolina tried to alleviate the pressure of slave rebellion
and in other ways. Laws were passed requiring better food and clothing for slaves and magnanimously
limiting slave working hours to 15 a day. Also, the frightened South Carolinians placed
a high tariff on importing slaves and used the revenue to subsidize the immigration of
white Protestants in order to redress the growing preponderance of Negroes in the colony.
The importation of slaves stopped completely from 1740 to 1744 and opened again only when
the slave traders of Bristol, England vehemently complained. But South Carolina partially conceded
in its efforts and colonial South Carolina never had quite so heavy a preponderance of
of Negros after 1740. In that year, Negros in South Carolina totaled some 30,000 and
whites approximately 15,000, while the figures for 1750 are about 39,000 Negros and 25,000
whites. South Carolina did not scruple to enlist Indians to crush the Negro slaves. In
In 1744, the government asked some Indians to apprehend armed runaway slaves who had
formed a base in the woods. Another slave plot was brewing in 1748. It was again uncovered
before ripening. In 1751, South Carolina found it necessary to provide the death penalty
for slaves even attempting to poison white people, an act which had lately been occurring
A 4-pound reward was offered to any Negro informer whose tale led to conviction. In 1759, another major revolt occurred in South Carolina, and in 1761, Negroes returned to systematic poisoning of their white masters.
A Negro rebellion broke out in 1765, but was suppressed by the militia.
Another anticipated revolt at the end of that year was thwarted by massive precautionary measures, including militia patrols, the importation of a number of Indians to terrorize the Negro slaves, and putting up-country settlers, as well as North Carolinians, on the alert.
A hundred slaves did manage to escape, however, to the swamps of Colleton County.