Slavery in North Carolina has a deep history. Slavery has been a part of North Carolina history
since its settlement by Europeans in the late 1600s and early 1700s. During that time slave were
brought to North Carolina from the West Indies and other colonies, however a significant
number of slave came from Africa. Due to North Carolina geography it was not a big part of the
first slave trading. The geography that was the problem was all the islands that made up the Otter
Banks. It made it dangerous for slave ships to land on the North Carolina coast. The 0ne
exception to the land issue was ships landing at Wilmington and by the 1800s Africans in
Wilmington outnumbered whites by a two to one ratio.
By the 1800s there were around one hundred forty thousand Africans living in North
Carolina. A small number of who were free blacks, but the majority were slaves. Many of these
slaves worked in agriculture on farms. Many of the farms were small with smaller groups of
slaves, which lead to different social dynamic for North Carolina Slaves. On plantations there
often were people assigned to do a certain task and that was what they always did. On the
smaller farms there were fewer slaves to specialize in each job. Many slaves may have been
required to work both in the field and other tasks as well. The slaves of North Carolina also
usually had more contact with others slaves from neighboring farms, including even finding
spouses at other farms. They would travel to the other farm to visit. Slave codes passed in the
colonial periods still were enforced during the antebellum years. This was done because whites
hoped that this laws would prevent slave up rises. In the 1820s and 1830s many slaves were sold
to new owners.
In 1829, David Walker, a free black author, gave whites in North Carolina another reason
to fear their slaves turning against them. Walker was an abolitionist who moved from his home
state of North Carolina to Boston, where he helped escaped slaves establish new lives and also
published walker’s Appeal, calling for immediate freedom for all slaves and urging slaves to
rebel as a group. Fearing leaders in North Carolina passed legislation in 1830 that made it illegal
to distribute the pamphlet in hopes of quelling Walker’s radical ideas about abolishing slavery.
A second law passed in 1830 made it a crime to teach a slave to read or write. Restrictive laws
were also passed in response to the increase in slave uprisings in nearby states. Nat Turner
Rebellion was an example of one of these uprising. Nat Turner Rebellion happed in August of
1831 right over the border in Virginia. Nat Turner was a slave in Virginia who led 75 escaped
slaves in an uprising. The escaped slaves killed about 60 white people before being captured by
the state militia. Slave owners in North Carolina were horrified at the thought of a similar
rebellion happening and hoped severe slave laws would prevent uprisings of that magnitude.