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chaptersix
WEALTH AND SLAVERY
IN CAROLINA
How and why did a plantation economy develop in the
Low Country of colonial Carolina?
SELECTED
VOCABULARY
Mercantilism
Staple crop
Eliza Lucas
Pinckney
Middle passage
Census
Gullah
Stono Rebellion
OVERVIEW
In 1660 the English began to regulate trade with the colonies more
closely. This careful regulation was
part of the policy known as mercantilism. Parliament passed a series of
navigation acts. The Board of Trade
was put in charge of the colonial governments.
In Carolina the Lords Proprietors
did not approve of Indian slavery
but urged trade with the Indians in
deerskins and furs. Growing rice
and indigo made Carolina rich, but
rice and indigo plantations had to
have slave labor. As a result, large
numbers of African slaves were sold
to Carolina planters. African slave
culture became an important part of
life in Carolina. The Stono
Rebellion forced the
whites to restrict the
lives of blacks.
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TIMELINE
UNITED STATES
SOUTH CAROLINA
1660
First Act of
Navigation and Trade
1663
Second Act of
Navigation and
Trade
1663
First Carolina charter
1670
Charles Town settled
First African slaves arrived
1685
First rice crop
1696
Third Act of
Navigation and Trade
1739
Stono Rebellion
1740
Negro Act
1741
First indigo crop
I. BRITAIN DEVELOPS A COLONIAL POLICY
How did the Navigation Acts both benefit and
restrict colonial South Carolina?
When Charles II became king in 1660, Britain was
in deep financial trouble. The merchants of London
urged him to adopt laws to increase trade. Members of
the Privy Council agreed. So in 1660 the government
began to regulate trade with the colonies. The close
regulation of trade for the benefit of the state is part of
the economic policy known as mercantilism. The goal
of mercantilism was to increase wealth by importing
more goods than exporting.
Parliament passed the first Act of Navigation and
Trade in 1660. It required goods from the colonies to
be shipped only in English ships with English crews.
Certain crops grown in the colonies could be sold only
to England. These goods were put on an “enumerated
list.” The list included tobacco, rice, and indigo. In
1663, Parliament passed a second Act of Navigation
and Trade. This act stated that all goods sold in
America by other nations had to be sent to England
first. Then they had to be sent to America in English
ships. The colonial governors were put in charge of
enforcing the navigation laws.
These laws were hard to enforce, especially in
America. So in 1696, Parliament passed a third Act of
Navigation and Trade. This law required the governors
to enforce the regulations more carefully. Customs officials in each colony were put under the authority of
the customs commissioners in London.
Control of the colonies was put in the hands of the
Board of Trade. The board sent the colonial governors
their instructions. The governors, in turn, reported to
the board. But the main task of the Board of Trade was
to increase trade between England and the colonies.
II. TROUBLE OVER INDIAN SLAVERY
IN CAROLINA
Why did the Carolinians and the
proprietors disagree over the trade in
Native American slaves?
Sir John Yeamans died two years after he became governor of Carolina in 1672. This time the Lords
Proprietors made Joseph West governor and gave him
the title of landgrave. No one but a proprietor could
challenge his power in the colony. Along with Lord
Ashley and Dr. Henry Woodward, West was one of
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those most responsible for the success of Carolina. For eight years West
ruled wisely.
What ended West’s term as governor was his support of the Indian slave
trade. The proprietors had invested great sums of money in the colony but
received little in return. Lord Ashley’s dream of a staple crop that would
make large profits had come to nothing. Trade with the Indians was his
only hope. But the settlers continued to buy and sell Indian slaves, and
Governor West did nothing to stop them. So in 1682 the proprietors
removed him from office.
III. EXPANDING TRADE WITH SOUTHEASTERN INDIANS
How did the Carolinians expand their trade with the Native
Americans?
With the help of Dr. Woodward, the settlers had traded with the native
people in what is now South Carolina and Georgia from the time the
English settlement began. In the 1690s, under Governor Joseph Blake,
Charles Town merchants began to trade with Native American nations as far
west as the Mississippi River. Traders went into the land of the Creek in
western Georgia and present-day Alabama. Then the Carolinians opened trade
with the Choctaw on the lower Mississippi River. After the French settled
Louisiana in 1699, the Choctaw began to trade with them. But the Choctaws’
neighbors on the Mississippi, the Chickasaw, liked to trade with the Carolinians.
Only after 1700 did Charles Town open trade with the Cherokee nation in nearby
northwestern Carolina. Thousands of deerskins and furs filled the warehouses of
Charles Town every year. The Carolina colony began to grow rich on the Native
American trade.
In his “Grand Model,” Ashley
Cooper wanted the new
Charles Town laid out in a pattern. The city was the only
walled city built by the English
in North America. This map
was drawn by Edward Crisp
in 1704.
IV. RICE – CAROLINA GOLD
What group made rice a staple crop for South Carolina?
Dr. Henry Woodward began the
colony’s trade with the Native
Americans.
What goods did the
Proprietors want from the
Native Americans?
MCS Oliphant Collection
The search for a staple, or money, crop ended quite by accident, according to
the traditional story. Rice was planted in 1670 on the experimental farm at
Albemarle Point but had not grown very well. In 1685 a ship loaded with rice
from Madagascar, now the Malagasy Republic, a large island off the east coast of
Africa, sailed into Charles Town harbor for repairs. The ship’s captain, John
Thurber, was entertained by the citizens until his boat was ready for the high seas
again. In return for their kindness, Captain Thurber gave bags of
seed rice to Dr. Woodward and Landgrave Thomas Smith.
Woodward planted the rice on his plantation near the city. Smith
sowed his in his garden at the corner of East Bay Street and
Longitude Lane in Charles Town. The red-orange kernels of rice
grew well. The Carolinians named the rice “Carolina Gold.”
Dr. Woodward died soon afterward, but many of the Carolinians
began to grow rice. In addition to Carolina Gold, they imported and
planted white seed rice. In 1699 they shipped 2,000 barrels of rice
from Carolina to England. By 1705 the profit from rice rose above
that from the Indian trade. Ten years later, in 1715, South Carolina
grew 15,000 barrels of rice. Rice was the answer to the search of the
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The oldest house in South
Carolina is Middleburg. It was built
about 1697 on the Cooper River by
Benjamin Simons, a French
Huguenot. Today it is in
Berkeley County.
What do you suppose Simons
planted along the Cooper
River?
proprietors for a staple crop.
At first the Carolina planters grew rice on
high ground. They sowed the seed in open
fields like other grain. But many of the
enslaved people in the colony were natives of
West Africa, where they had grown rice. They
knew more about growing rice than the
white planters. They knew it grew better in
wet soil. They planted rice in the freshwater
swamps along the coastal rivers. After experimenting for a number of years, they found
that rice grew better if the fields were flooded at certain times and drained at others. A
century later, in the 1780s, the planters used
slave labor to surround their rice fields with
high banks or dikes along the rivers. They built sluiceways (SLOOS-ways), or
floodgates, in the banks. These could be opened when the high tide raised the
level of the rivers, and the fields were flooded with water. When the sluiceways
were opened at low tide, the water drained from the fields. Rice grew best if the
fields were flooded three times while the crop was growing. This was known as
tidal cultivation.
Once the rice plants matured, they had to be cut and dried. Then the rice was
threshed. That is, the grain was cut from the stalk. Finally the rice had to be
hulled; the rough hulls were removed from the smooth rice. Much of the work
was done by hand in the same way it had been done in Africa for centuries. For
example, slaves used mortars and pestles like the ones they had developed in
Africa to remove the hulls. Then the mixture of rice and hulls was poured into
large, flat fanner baskets. As the slave women “fanned” the rice into the air, the
wind blew the hulls away. The heavier rice fell back into the baskets. The rice was
then packed into barrels for shipment abroad. Not until 1787 did Jonathan Lucas,
a planter on the Santee River, invent a rice mill driven by waterpower to reduce
the amount of human labor.
V. INDIGO – A SECOND STAPLE
What part did Eliza Lucas Pinckney play in making indigo a
cash crop?
There was one major problem with rice. It could only be grown on the coastal
rivers twelve to sixteen miles from the ocean. Only there, above the salt point, did
the tides bring fresh water to flood the fields. Many Carolina planters did not own
land where rice could grow. But indigo could grow almost anywhere in the warm
Carolina climate. Indigo plants produced a blue dye that brought a high price in
Europe. Today the color of indigo is known to anyone who wears jeans. But there
were two problems with making indigo dye. The plants were easily killed by frost,
and making the dye from the indigo plant was very difficult. The person who overcame these problems was a remarkable woman—Eliza Lucas Pinckney.
Born in the West Indies about 1722, Eliza Lucas went to school in England.
When she was fifteen, her family moved to Carolina. Her father George Lucas, a
British army officer, became a planter. When he was named lieutenant governor
of Antigua, a British colony in the Caribbean, Eliza stayed in Carolina to manage
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the family plantations. In 1740, George Lucas sent his daughter a supply of indigo seeds. Her first crop was killed by the frost. A second was ruined by an overseer. In 1744, the year she married Colonel Charles Pinckney, Eliza Lucas raised
a good crop.
She carefully oversaw the harvesting of the plants and the making of the
dye. After the plants were cut, they were soaked in a large vat filled with water.
Then lime was added to the water in a second vat to extract the dye.
Meanwhile the mixture was stirred with
paddles for hours. The water was drained
off into a third vat, and the dye sank to
the bottom of the vat. When the dye
dried, it was cut into small blocks and
shipped to market.
Eliza Lucas Pinckney freely shared her
knowledge with other planters. Soon the
same process was used all over the colony.
By 1747, Carolina produced nearly
140,000 pounds of indigo. The quality of
Carolina indigo was high due to the work
of Moses Lindo, a Jewish merchant in
Charles Town. Lindo had learned in
Europe how to spot poor indigo. He
became the Inspector General for Indigo
in Carolina. Through the Native American
trade and the rice and indigo crops,
planters and merchants in Carolina were
growing richer at a faster rate than people
in any other part of the British Empire.
VI. THE GROWTH OF AFRICAN SLAVERY
Why did enslaved people from Africa become the major labor force
in South Carolina?
Both rice and indigo had to have a large labor force. They required a great deal
of work by hand. Soon there was a severe labor shortage in the colony. Shortly
This vat was built to process
indigo on Otranto Plantation.
Today it has been rebuilt in
Berkeley County.
How were indigo vats used to
produce indigo dye?
“Fields Prepared for Planting, ca. 1935, from the series A
Carolina Rice Plantation of the Fifties” by Alice Ravenel
Huges Smith, watercolor on paper, Gibbs Museum of
Art/Carolina Art Association, 1937.09.10
Enslaved Africans brought
methods of planting rice from
their homeland.
How did the slaves flood the
fields?
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African Slave Trade
What region of Africa did
the slaves come from?
after the settling of Charles Town, the planters began to buy Native American
slaves. Some were put to work in the fields; others were sold to planters in the
West Indies. Then, white indentured servants came from England. They were too
poor to pay for their own passage across the Atlantic. They agreed to work for a
number of years to pay for the voyage. Neither group provided a large labor force.
The answer to the need for workers was enslaved Africans.
There was one black servant on the first voyage from England in 1669, but
there is no record of his or her name. A few weeks later Governor William Sayle
brought a family of Africans to Charles Town. They were listed simply as John, Sr.,
Elizabeth, and John, Jr. Governor John Yeamans and Governor Joseph Morton
brought dozens of enslaved people from Barbados. About 30 percent of the early
Carolina settlers were black. The first slaves had lived among the English planters
in the West Indies and had learned the English language and English ways before
they came to Charles Town.
VII. THE INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
Why did African slavery become an international business?
After rice was brought to Carolina in 1685, the need for slaves to work in the
fields grew quickly. There were companies in many European nations that
bought slaves in West Africa and shipped them to America. One of these was an
English firm, the Royal African Company. Lord Ashley was a major stockholder.
The Royal African Company bought slaves from local chiefs or traders in Africa,
loaded them on ships, and took them to the English ports of Bristol or Liverpool.
There the slaves were unloaded and placed on slave ships for the middle passage
across the Atlantic. They were chained in narrow quarters. At sea they were
unchained once a day and brought on deck in small groups for exercise and feed-
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EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY:
Using Population Figures to Explain Changes
Historians use many kinds of information from the past to tell
their story. An important source is population figures. They tell how
many people lived at one time in a place. Every ten years the
United States has a census. A census is a count of how many people live in the nation. The first census was in 1790. During the
colonial period the royal governors often sent population figures to the Board of Trade in London. The records in London
contain census figures for South Carolina for the years 1703,
1708, 1720, and 1740.
A graph can sometimes explain why population figures are
important. The graph below has population figures for South Carolina
between 1700 and 1740. There are figures for both blacks and whites.
Look at the figures. Think about the events in this chapter. Use the population figures to answer the following questions:
Why was the year 1708 important?
Why were whites so afraid during the Stono Rebellion in 1739?
The number of slaves who came to Carolina was so great that by 1708
the number of blacks and whites was about even. There were about 4,000
of each race. After 1708 there was a black majority in the colony.
This woman is making sweet
grass baskets just as her
ancestors did.
MCS Oliphant Collection
Who first brought the skill of
making sweet grass baskets
to South Carolina?
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This early painting shows enslaved Africans celebrating their heritage with the use of
musical instruments and dancing.
What instruments are they playing?
“The Old Plantation,” by an unknown artist. Abby Aldrich Rockerfeller Folk Art Center, Colonial Williamsburg
ing. For the rest of the day the slaves had to lie chained in their own filth. Many
died from disease; some killed themselves.
The slave ships landed their cargo first in the West Indies. There the slaves
could be “seasoned” before the last leg of the trip to Charles Town. The Carolina
government required the ships to unload the slaves first on Sullivan’s Island,
where they could be inspected for diseases. Then they were carried to Charles
Town and sold at auction by local merchants. Many Charles Town merchants
grew rich in the slave trade.
VIII. AFRICAN AMERICANS IN CAROLINA
How did enslaved Africans enrich South Carolina culture?
Some of the slaves brought directly from Africa knew English or Spanish or
Portuguese from the European traders. Others knew Arabic from Middle Eastern
traders. They belonged to many tribal groups. For example, some were Ebos, some
Angolans, and others Gambians. They spoke many African languages. Once in
America, Africans began to create a common language called Gullah. It often used
English words, but it followed African rules of grammar. Elements of Gullah are still
spoken by some African Americans in the Low Country today.
Many worshiped the spirits of their ancestors in the African tradition. They
brought with them a rich heritage of music and dancing, of wood carving, and of folk
medicine. They knew the wisdom of their tribes, which had been passed down to
them in the form of stories. Some had been converted to Islam and worshiped
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according to the Koran. Many slave companies had the slaves baptized as Christians
before they went on board the ships in Africa. But the ceremony meant little to the
slaves at the time.
Later in Carolina some slaves went to church and became Christians. At first,
white masters did not approve of slaves’ going to church. In the Bible the masters
read the words of Jesus: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free.” Masters were afraid that they might have to free the slaves who became
Christians. Before long, however, the slave owners believed that the Bible was
talking about the freedom of the soul, not the body. They allowed their slaves to
be baptized. Many slaves were not convinced. They thought they were meant to
be free—soul and in body.
IX. THE STONO REBELLION AND ITS AFTERMATH
How did life change for enslaved Africans after the Stono Rebellion?
Not all of the Africans reacted to life in slavery the same way. Some thought that
they were trapped and had no hope. Many believed that their religious faith would
bring them a better life in the next world. Others decided to rebel against their
masters in any way they could. They worked in the fields as slowly as they dared
without being punished. Some ran away as far as St. Augustine, where the Spanish
promised them freedom. Others burned barns on the plantations or murdered
their masters. What whites dreaded most of all was a revolt by the black majority
against the whites. Such a revolt took place in South Carolina in 1739.
The Stono Rebellion began early on Sunday morning, September 9, 1739. Led
by a slave named Jemmy, about twenty blacks met near the Stono River, twenty
miles south of Charles Town. At Stono Bridge they broke into Hutchinson’s Store,
stole small weapons and powder, and killed the storekeepers. Then they moved
down the road toward Beaufort. At every plantation they urged slaves to join them.
They burned houses and killed the whites they found along the way. About four
o’clock in the afternoon the group had grown to between sixty and 100 slaves.
They stopped at Jacksonborough on the Edisto River. A group of armed planters
surprised the slaves and killed them. In the following weeks sixty more slaves
were executed.
The next year the Commons
House passed the Negro Act of
1740. It became the slave code of
South Carolina. Under this new
law slaves were not free to travel
without written passes. They
could not raise food nor earn
money. They could not meet in
groups without whites present,
and it was unlawful to teach
slaves to read. These harsh laws
were not always enforced. But
after 1739 blacks had even less
freedom than before, and feelings
between the races grew worse.
Many of the first-generation
slaves built houses in the style
of African houses. This was the
slave quarter at Mulberry
Plantation in Berkeley County.
What African features can
you see?
“View of Mulberry, House and Street” by Thomas Coram,
Oil on paper, Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art
Association, 1968.18.01
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EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY:
Sancho Cooper Becomes a Slave
Shortly before his death in 1875, Sancho Cooper, a freed
slave in Columbia, told a friend the story of his life. He
was born in Africa about 1780. Later he was captured by
slave traders and taken to South Carolina. This is a part
of his story:
I Sancho was born in the city Cowbo Africa and was
raised by my parents in the fear of God. The same God
that I now adore. My father worship him before me. The
name of God was Ala [or Allah]. And the name of Christ was
Mamudda [or Mohammed], in my native language[.] At about
twelve year of age my father sent me to England for the purpose of
giving me schooling under the care of Mr Price. But alas for us we
were overlooking by Robbers, captured and carried to Jamaca [in
the West Indies.] We remain there one year, the captain of our vessel hung. After remaining there one year I was brought over to
South Carolina and fell into the hands of a Mr. Canada a Roman
Catholic. About fifteen or twenty years after I arrive I embrace religion. I got powerfully awaken under the labors of [Methodist]
Bishop Ashbury [that is, Asbury] in Charleston and never give up
the struggle untill I was happily converted to God through the
mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ...
Questions for Reflection:
?
1 What can you say about Sancho
Cooper’s background in Africa?
2. What was his native religion?
3. How was he sold into slavery?
4. How important was religion in
Sancho Cooper’s life?
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Memoir of Sancho Cooper, Hugh A. C.
Walker Papers, Sandor Tezler Library,
Wofford College, Spartanburg, S. C.
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Recalling wha
t you read
I. Britain Develops a Colonial Policy
1. What is mercantilism, and why did Britain adopt this policy?
2. What were the requirements of the first Act of Navigation and Trade of
1660?
3. What requirements were added by the second Act of Navigation of 1663?
4. What was added by the third Navigation Act?
5. What was the main task of the Board of Trade?
II. Trouble Over Indian Slavery in Carolina
1. Who was appointed governor of Carolina after Sir John Yeamans died?
2. What did the new governor do that caused the Lords Proprietors to
remove him from office?
3. Why did the proprietors oppose the Native American slave trade?
III. Expanding Trade With the Southeastern Indians
FOR
THOUGHT
1. Why could it be said
that the wealth of
South Carolina was
built on the labor
and skill of
enslaved people?
2. Why did the Stono
Rebellion result in
the Negro Act of
1740?
1. Who was responsible for much of the trade with the Indians in South
Carolina and Georgia from the beginning of the English settlement?
2. In what other parts of the Southeast was trade established with the Native
Americans? Which nations were involved?
3. What did the settlers receive from the Native Americans?
IV. Rice—Carolina Gold
1. Who provided the seed rice that grew successfully in Charles Town and on
a nearby plantation? Why was the name “Carolina Gold” given to the rice?
2. What happened to rice as a money crop during the years from 1685 to
1715?
3. Where did Carolina planters first plant rice?
4. Why did the slaves know more about growing rice?
5. Describe the best growing methods for rice.
6. Describe what was done to the rice after it matured and was ready for harvest.
7. What contribution did Jonathan Lucas make to the production of rice?
V. Indigo—A Second Staple
1. How was indigo used?
2. Why did it become a popular crop?
3. What were two problems the colonists had with the growing and processing of indigo?
4. What contribution did Eliza Lucas Pinckney make to the production of
indigo?
5. Who was Moses Lindo? What did he have to do with the indigo industry?
continued on page 62
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Recalling wha
t you read
VI. The Growth of African Slavery
1. What two crops grown in South Carolina were considered labor-intensive
crops?
2. What three groups provided the labor for labor-intensive crops?
3. Why did the first Carolina slaves already understand the English language
and English ways when they came to Charles Town?
VII. The International Slave Trade
1. Why did the need for slaves increase after rice was introduced into
Carolina?
2. Describe the treatment of slaves who were transported across the Atlantic.
3. Where did slave ships first land? Why?
4. Why did the Carolina government later require slaves to be unloaded first
on Sullivan’s Island? How were the slaves sold when they arrived in
Charles Town?
VIII. African-Americans in Carolina
1. Give examples of the heritage that the African slaves brought with them to
Carolina.
2. Why were the slaves’ white masters afraid for them to go to church?
3. How did the white masters’ interpretation of the Bible’s meaning of freedom differ from the slaves’ interpretation?
4. After 1708, what happened to the balance in the number of whites and
blacks living in Carolina?
IX. The Stono Rebellion and Its Aftermath
1. What was the Stono Rebellion? Describe what happened.
2. What was the Negro Act of 1740? Why did it cause greater resentment
between the races?
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