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Black communities in south carolinaAfrican Americans in South Carolina - Wikipedia
South Carolina's Black Majority () • - The land is the culture
This article examines South Carolina's history with an emphasis on the lives, status, and contributions of African Americans. Enslaved Africans first arrived in the region in , and the institution of slavery remained until the end of the Civil War in Beginning during the Reconstruction Era , African Americans were elected to political offices in large numbers, leading to South Carolina's first majority-black government.
Toward the end of the s however, the Democratic Party regained power and passed laws aimed at disenfranchising African Americans, including the denial of the right to vote.
Between the s and s, African Americans and whites lived segregated lives; people of color and whites were not allowed to attend the same schools or share public facilities. African Americans were treated as second-class citizens leading to the civil rights movement in the s.
Senator since Reconstruction, Tim Scott , was elected. In , the Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina Statehouse after the Charleston church shooting.
Enslaved Africans first arrived in the area that would become South Carolina in as part of a Spanish expedition from the Caribbean. In when the British Empire colonized the region, the Lords Proprietor established the Province of Carolina and created a plantation-style economy that increasingly relied on enslaved labor.
By , the enslaved African population in South Carolina exceeded the number of free whites. This black majority existed in the state until the Great Migration in the early twentieth century, with some temporary fluctuations. Unlike her more northern colonies, South Carolina's introduction to slavery was based largely on a preexisting enslavement system from the Caribbean in the late seventeenth century.
Many of the colony's first white settlers immigrated from Barbados. By , South Carolina's system of slavery resulted in the development of the rice and indigo cash crop industry. Contrary to popular understanding, cotton was not a big factor until the early s. Slave traders typically offered products such as iron and copper bars, brass pans and kettles, cowry shells, old guns, gun powder, cloth, and alcohol in return for African slaves; ships typically loaded between to over slaves.
Charleston, South Carolina , named Charles Town in colonial times, was a major global port for trading goods and slaves. By , more than 3, African slaves were imported to the city annually. When slaves arrived in the city, they were often inspected and auctioned at the local market. Potential buyers inspected male slaves for characteristics of strength. If a male slave appeared weak, old, or frail, he sold for a lower price than a young, brawny male. Slaves with bruising and scaring from whippings were auctioned more cheaply because buyers were uneasy about purchasing a slave they believed to be rebellious.
Women were inspected for characteristics of beauty and child reproduction. Both male and female slaves were inspected for diseases, typically being stripped of their clothing. Some potential buyers even forced open the mouths of slaves to view their teeth, another method of inspecting for disease. Slaves that were not purchased in Charles Town were forced to travel to other slave auction houses, such as in Georgetown or in other colonies. Slave auctions also served as a form of entertainment for many white residents in Charles Town.
Even people that had no intentions of bidding on a slave watched as African men and women were sold by the auctioneer. In some instances, auctioneers provided wine, drink and other forms of refreshments for slave buyers. As the slave practice grew, the prices of slaves rose.
The Stono Rebellion was the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, resulting in the deaths of Africans and 23 colonists.
The group killed two storekeepers to gather weapons and ammunition. The slaves' goal was to march to Spanish Florida , a well-known refuge for escapees.
Lieutenant Governor William Bull warned slave owners that a rebellion was forming; the slave owners gathered militia to suppress the uprising. The following day, the slaves and militia met, and after the confrontation, 23 whites and 47 slaves were killed.
In response to the Stono Rebellion, the South Carolina legislature passed more laws limiting the rights of African Americans and more-strictly regulating the institution of slavery. One such law was the Negro Act of , which restricted slave assembly, education, and movement in addition to requiring legislative approval for each act of manumission. The act established penalties for slave owners who were too lenient in punishing their slaves. The act required slaves to travel with a pass and gave any white male the ability to scrutinize, question, and detain blacks they believed to be escaped slaves.
Politicians were divided on how African Americans who fought for the American cause should be rewarded. Two delegates to the Continental Congress , Edward Rutledge and Thomas Lynch , sought to bar free African Americans from enlisting in the militia, while other statesmen, such as Henry Laurens , favored exchanging military service for freedom.
Another proposal from Thomas Sumter stated that any man who joined the militia for ten months would be gifted one free slave, though this proposal was also rejected. Ultimately, slaves who served as Patriots were returned into slavery following the war's conclusion. Slaves did not typically serve non-voluntarily; most were commanded by their slave owners to serve in their stead, and any slave who refused to serve after being instructed, risked a penalty of death.
If the slave was paid the typical daily wage of seven pence, by law, that money belonged to the slave owner. Dunmore's Proclamation declared that any slave who ran away from his master and joined the royal forces would be granted his freedom.
This promise was never carried out since the British lost the war. As many as 25, slaves, along with other British Loyalists, escaped South Carolina following the conclusion of the war. One band of three hundred Georgia and South Carolina slaves, who called themselves King of England's Soldiers , fled to the Savannah River swamps and survived until May of when they were burned out by militia. Anticipating the enforcement of this law, Charleston traders acquired approximately 70, Africans between and For most of the nineteenth century, slaves in South Carolina were born into slavery, not carried from Africa.
By , the slave population of South Carolina was just over ,, and the free black population was just over 10, Compared to other states, South Carolina had a very large population of slaves, which had nearly quadrupled in the 70 years between and Prior to the s, South Carolina's slave-based economy dealt mostly in the harvesting of tobacco, rice, and indigo. In , the Santee Canal connected the Santee and Cooper rivers, making it possible to transport goods directly from Columbia, South Carolina to Charleston by water.
The creation of the Santee Canal, coupled with the invention of the cotton gin , transformed the cotton-production business into part of the global economy. The upcountry of South Carolina had fertile land that supported the growing of short-staple cotton, and many planters ruined the fertility of the land, often unknowingly, by planting season after season of cotton.
But the slave-driven cotton industry catapulted South Carolina as one of the wealthiest locations on Earth by the mid-nineteenth century. Slavery soon spread throughout all of South Carolina instead of having a concentration along the coast as it had since the s.
The expansion of slavery throughout the state led to the full maturity of the slave society in South Carolina, and by , Denmark Vesey was born into slavery in St. Thomas , a colony of Denmark. Vesey's owner settled in Charleston after the Revolutionary War. After gaining his freedom, Vesey socialized with many slaves and became increasingly set on helping them escape slavery.
In order for the revolt to be successful, Vesey had to recruit others and strengthen his army, which was not complicated because he was a lay preacher. Vesey inspired slaves by connecting their potential freedom to the biblical story of the Exodus. Vesey held numerous secret meetings and eventually gained the support of both slaves and free blacks throughout the city and countryside who were willing to fight for their freedom.
After seizing weapons, Vesey intended to commandeer ships from the harbor and sail to Haiti , which had recently led a successful slave revolution. Vesey and his followers also planned to kill white slaveholders throughout the city, as had been done in Haiti, and liberate more slaves. Two slaves loyal to their masters, George Wilson and Joe LaRoche, opposed Vesey's planned revolution; they reported the scheme to officials.
Wilson and LaRoche's testimonies confirmed an earlier report from another slave named Peter Prioleau. Based on the slaves' warning, the city launched a search for conspirators. The Mayor James Hamilton organized a citizens' militia , putting the city on alert. White militias and groups of armed men patrolled the streets daily for several weeks until many slaves were arrested, including Vesey. In total, the courts convicted 67 men of conspiracy and hanged 35, including Vesey, in July A total of 31 men were deported, 27 reviewed and acquitted, and 38 questioned and released.
While a failed revolution, Vesey's conspiracy resulted in stricter slave laws and regulations against blacks to be enacted throughout the country.
In Antebellum South Carolina, slave-owning society was divided into three tiers: the Yeomen class, which on average owned slaves; the Middling class, which on average owned slaves; and the Planter class, which on average owned over 20 slaves. While some slaves worked on huge planter-class plantations, some slaves worked on small farms. Life as a slave varied drastically from owner to owner. Typically, there were three types of slave labor structures in South Carolina: 1 the gang system , which was the most common and required slaves to work from sun up to sundown.
This system was most commonly used on cotton plantations and was the most brutal; 2 the task system , which required slaves to complete a certain task by the end of the workday.
This system, while less common, provided slaves time to exercise their culture if their tasks were completed early; 3 household slaves, who were typically females that worked inside the slaveowner's home chiefly to nursery children, prepare food and cook. Slaves were often prohibited from gathering, practicing religion, learning to read or write, and owning weapons, though much of these restrictions were decided by the slave owner.
Some examples of slave codes are listed below:. Whites that hit, harmed, or otherwise punished slaves were generally protected in South Carolina. Rules and regulations passed under the Negro Act of carried both into South Carolina law and custom.
For example, if a white man were to kill a slave, he would be subject to a misdemeanor and fined. In reverse, if a black man were to kill a white man, he would be executed. Slaves that attempted to run away from their masters were subject to various types of punishments ranging from whipping, the most common, to death.
Some slaves were branded with a hot iron or had part of their bodies marked. Some slave owners took a knife to a slave's ear or nose and disfigured it in a way that distinguished the slaves as runaways. Some slaves were tortured by having salt, vinegar, or pepper seeds fleshed into their wounds. Female slaves, especially aged 14—25, were exposed to the risk of being raped by a white man.
Owners of female slaves could freely and legally use them as sexual objects. Furthermore, females of breeding age were often kept pregnant, as slavery status was inherited through the mother and following the bans on importing new slaves from Africa, it was the most abundant source of new slaves. Any black man found having sexual relations with a white woman would have been put to death. Slaves in South Carolina exercised culture through cuisine, music, dance, hair, language, and religion.
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