Peter Wood - Black Majority

Take no ones word for anything, including mine
but trust your experience. Know whence you
came. If you know whence you came, there is
really no limit to where you can go.

I have great respect for that unsung army of
black men and women. I am proud of these
people not because of their color but because
of their intelligence and their spiritual force
and their beauty. The country should be proud
of them, too, but, alas, not many people in this
country even know of their existence. And the
reason for this ignorance is that a knowledge
of the role these people playedand playin
American life would reveal more about America
to Americans than Americans wish to know.

I am not a ward of America; I am one of the
first Americans to arrive on these shores.

JAMES BALDWIN , The Fire Next Time

Contents

LIST OF TABLES

South Carolina Population as Reported in 1708.

Population Figures for South Carolina by Parish, 1720.

Record of Annual Slave Imports, 17061739.

Population Trends in Colonial South Carolina, 17001740.

Children in 53 White Households with One Man and One Woman.

Distribution of Slaves per Household, St. Georges Parish, S.C., 1726.

Distribution of Slaves and Whites in Relation to Total Household Size, St. Georges Parish, S.C., 1726.

Distribution of Slaves and Whites by Sex and Age, St. Georges Parish, S.C., 1726.

Africans Arriving in Charlestown, S.C., Between March 1735 and March 1740.

Africans Arriving in Charlestown, S.C., (March 1735March 1740), by Year and by Origin of Shipment.

A map showing parish boundaries and population distribution in 1720 appears on .

T HROUGHOUT the course of this work I have received encouragement and assistance from a great number of personal acquaintances and fellow scholars. Most importantly, I have gained from talking and corresponding with a wide range of colleagues, both younger and older than myself. From the start, I have benefitted from the consistent kindness and interest of fellow researchers, and of staff members, in the places where I have worked. Recently, my associates at the Rockefeller Foundation (where such lowland concerns as rice production and the control of malarious mosquitoes are not unknown) have been most helpful, as have friends at Alfred A. Knopf. I am indebted, deeply and in different ways, to all these people. I trust each of them will know, without being named here, how much I value their individual support and counsel.

Among institutions, Harvards Widener and Houghton libraries and Princetons Firestone Library gave me full use of their facilities for extended periods. I was a welcome guest at numerous other research centers, especially in South Carolina. The South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston and the South Caroliniana Library in Columbia were particularly gracious. For many months the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, also located in Columbia, served as my second home. These repositories uphold the best traditions of a region where personal kindness and hospitality still mean a great deal, and where history is a vital force demanding study and respect.

Two persons in particular contributed more to this present undertaking than they may realize. Oscar Handlin first introduced me to the vitality of social history. His undergraduate lectures suggested to me something of the diversity and interdependencies that have always characterized American life, and that we have only begun to understand. He later urged me, indirectly, to be both independent and generous in my judgments. Bernard Bailyn communicated to me the excitement, importance, and immediacy of early American history. In his subtlety of approach, depth of research, and clarity of expression, he has followed in a distinguished line of scholars and set an appealing and implausible standard for his students. The congenial and shrewd way in which he offered critical encouragement at every stage of this project has been an important factor in its completion, and I am grateful for his intellectual and personal kindness.

Three other special individualsMary Lee Wood, William Barry Wood, and Ann Douglas Woodeach contributed deeply and distinctively to the shaping of this volume and to the unfolding of my life. Both the book and its author are the better for knowing them.

P.H.W.

Introduction

I BEGAN this study by wondering at what point, if any, my interests in colonial history and in black history could intersect. I was aware that African slaves, if taken together, were the largest single group of non-English-speaking migrants to enter the North American colonies in the pre-Revolutionary era. Indeed, they were the earliest of any major contingent of ethnic immigrants to reach the continent from across the Atlantic. The proportion of Negroes in the population would never again be so high as it was during the eighteenth century. And yet none of these facts was reflected in the history which I had read.