Charleston Landscapes

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Black History and Slavery in Charleston
Charleston in 1770 was the fourth largest city in British America, exceeded in size only by New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Shipping was a major business activity in colonial times as the city served as the commercial center of the South. The slave trade was an important activity in this city -- about 30 percent of all slaves imported to the United States entered through Charleston. In all the British ports, including Charleston, 195 ships with a capacity of 47,146 slaves were participating in the trade. In 1773 alone, 42 slave ships with 8,050 slaves arrived in Charleston.

It was common for slave ships to lose from 25 to 33 percent of their slaves to disease or suffocation on the "middle passage"--the destination given to the trip to the West Indies because it was the second leg of triangular voyages: from America to Africa; Africa to the Caribbean; and from the Caribbean back to America. The stone ballast from ships when their cargo was light was used to pave some of the streets of Charleston; most of the streets were mainly made of sand.

From a pre-Civil War population of 10,000-12,000, Charleston grew very rapidly until 1790, when the first federal census reported 16,920--8,089 whites and 8,831 Black slaves. The plantation character of the Charleston district was suggested by a density of 13.4 "Negroes" per square mile, greater than any other area in the state. Although M. Bligh owned 1,200 to 1,500 slaves, and Ralph Izard had the second largest number with 594 slaves distributed on eight plantations in three parishes and 10 house slaves in Charleston, the number of slaves working on the average plantation was only between 25 and 30.

By 1800, the ratio of slaves to whites in South Carolina was 9 to 7, the widest margin that was to occur until the mid-20th century when the proportion of blacks declined. In Charleston the ratio was 3 to 1.

Blacks were employed in many occupations in the 18th and early 19th centuries: as butchers, carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cabinet makers, painters, gold and silversmiths, barber, tailors, tanners, shoemakers, hatters, rope makers, fishers, traders, etc. Most of them were slaves working for their masters or hired out to other employers at a profit, but a few of them were free Negroes.

Slave quarters in the city consisted of small houses in the rear of owners' residences. On the plantations slave quarters consisted of a row or cluster of cabins. In either case, slaves were issued staples of rice and corn and some times salted meat and fish. Once a year, well disposed planters issued their slaves a suit of coarse woolen cloth, two rough shirts, and a pair of pants. Cotton clothing was distributed by some planters. The kind of clothing slaves could wear was prescribed by state law.

Off of East Bay Street near the waterfront, slave auctions were held twice a week. Human chattel were placed on tables and turned around so that prospective buyers could appraise them; mouths were opened to show teeth. The highest bidders got the slaves; field slaves sold for about $500. So intense was the status for owning slaves that some white families who could not afford to buy their own would rent slaves at $6-10 per month (1820s).

By 1807, more than 15,000 slaves were brought to Charleston--an influx equivalent to 75 percent of the city's entire population! The expansion of cotton from the lowcountry to upcountry coincided with the increase in slaves. In 1821, South Carolina was producing more cotton than any other state in the nation. Not until 1826 was its output surpassed by Georgia, and not until 1834 did Alabama and Mississippi exceed that of South Carolina.

Slave revolts were common.
Between 1800 and 1821 at least 35 uprisings were plotted in the South, six in South Carolina alone. Denmark Vesey organized the most feared planned uprising in Charleston. He knew life as a slave and the inadequacies of life as a free blackman. Slave owners feared most runaway slaves, who represented loss of property, and freed slaves because they might organize and participate in slave revolts. In 1805, South Carolina passed a law that made aiding in slave conspiracies or uprisings by free people, black or white, a capital offense. The camps of runaway slaves were called marcoons.

By 1850, the state had 140 Negroes to every 100 whites, a higher ratio than any other state. Nearly 50 percent of the white population belonged to slave-owning families (again, higher than any other state), though only 19 percent of the population belonged to families that owned 20 or more slaves.

The state government of South Carolina rebelled against the federal government on three different occasions:

In 1823 it nullified a U.S. treaty that allowed freed blacks to come ashore because the it feared freed blacks in Charleston.
In 1832, it nullified a U.S. tariff law because it thought that import dues were hurting the state's economy.
In 1860, it repudiated its adherence to the U.S. Constitution because it believed that equal rights and self government for states were about to be subverted. See a succession plaque.

Although the U.S. Constitution does not use the words "slave" or "slavery," the constitution of the Confederacy did repeatedly. Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, in a message to the Confederate Congress on 29 April 1861 said: "the labor of African slaves was and is indispensable" to the South.

Optional Readings:
John Lofton. Insurrection in South Carolina. Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch Press, 1964.
David Delaney . Race, Place, and the Law: 1836-1948. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1998.

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 5 March 1997; last revised on 27 March 2003.