Slaves: Their Importance and Their Lives in and around the Rice Fields
A theory advanced by many historians says that it was the slaves who taught the planters the proper methods of planting rice. This seems to hold true, as rice was indigenous to certain areas of the western rain forests of Africa below the Sahara Desert. The Africans learned from observing this growth, and many areas (particularly the Windward Coast, site of modern day Ghana) would sell rice to slave traders so that the traders could provision their ships. Many of the slaves on these ships had worked in the African rice fields, and they were familiar with the planting, cultivating, harvesting, and cooking of rice. When some of these slaves came to South Carolina, settlers observed them growing rice. While it took a little while for the rice process to be perfected by the planters, South Carolinians had found a crop that would become the staple of their economy.
Unfortunately, this staple crop only increased the number of slaves needed, and this number grew as the amount of rice grown in South Carolina increased. Most of these new slaves had no prior knowledge of rice planting techniques, but the planters now had enough knowledge that this was not a problem. The population of slaves became a majority of the population of South Carolina, and the rice plantations became the largest slaveholders in America. For population figures in a major rice producing area, click here. The sex ratio of the slaves, though unequal, was more balanced than one may expect. Through the Civil War, South Carolina had a slave population that was roughly two males per female. This was done because most planters preferred a relatively stable slave population that could reproduce itself. Henry Laurens, later a president of the Continental Congress, noted that he liked to keep slave families together. This lowered the chances of rebellion and running away, both of which were feared by the planters. The slave population grew little naturally after the middle of the eighteenth century, but it continued to grow faster than the population of the state as a whole. Planters, particularly in the Georgetown region, often inherited slaves from relatives or would buy other plantations and the slaves in together. After the initial inflow of slaves, the area exported more slaves than it imported, and these slaves generally would sell for about $500.
Slaves held varying positions on the plantations. Both men and women did field labor. Slaves were given different tasks depending on their age and physical ability. Each slave had a task that had to be finished, and it was the job of the overseer (usually a lower class white man), the slave foremen, and the slave drivers to see that this task was done. Slaves generally worked about eight hours per day during the winter and ten hours per day during the summer, six days a week. They were given corn, peas, and rice along with rations of meat each week. Work for the following year would begin when the harvest was brought in. Slaves would repair, clean, and dig ditches and embankments. They would also maintain and repair the floodgates, called trunks. During the winter, they turned the land with plows and hoes. This hoeing continued through the summer until the harvest, when the process was repeated. Some slaves escaped this redundance by working on roads in the area, becoming carpenters who would build homes and mills, and making barrels for the rice. Other slaves were trained as house servants. For the majority, though, field work was their life.
The slave population seemed to be largely content by the 1840s. Acts by the South Carolina legislature in the 1820s made it almost impossible for slaveholders to free slaves. The planters, sensing the growing opposition to slavery, made an effort to improve the conditions for slaves. They were often given clothes, blankets, and shoes. Slave homes generally had two families, each with a room, and were cleaned each year. Many slaves were taught religion, and chapels on plantations were not uncommon. By the 1850s, slave life often seemed preferable to freedom, as some freemen even petitioned the South Carolina legislature to allow them to find a master to become enslaved. By the end of the 1850s, it seemed only a great war could end this institution.
Source of information is Littlefield pg. 58-61, Wood, pg. 152-155, and Rogers pg. 331-359.
.Front Gates / Table of Contents / Introduction of Rice / Rise of the Rice Plantations / Planters / Slaves / Georgetown County / Geography of Georgetown County / Examples of Plantation Homes / Demise of the Rice Plantations / Gallery of the Abandoned Rice Fields / Explanation of Certain Terms / Links to other sites / Bibliography