Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

esult could only be a rout. Fifty of the recaptured Negroes were hanged in
batches of ten a day "to intimidate the other Negroes." The betrayer Peter
was rewarded with clothing and cash. During 1740 and 1741, many fires
broke out in Charleston, some of which, at least, were examples of Negro protest.
A Charleston grand jury in March 1741 denounced the activities of such
white friends of Negro freedom as Hugh Brian, who wrote a monograph
warning the government "of the destruction of Charleston and deliverance of
the Negroes from their servitude." Brian's book was forcibly suppressed by
the government. Joining Hugh Brian in a call for Negro liberation were Jonathan
Brian, William Gilbert, and Robert Ogle. Reacting to the threat of fire
to its privileged position, the Charleston government executed a woman for
committing arson; even burned a man to death in August 1741 for setting fire
to a house, supposedly "with the evil intent of burning down the remaining
part of the town"; and convicted two slaves of setting fire to Charleston's
arsenal.
In addition to brutal repression, South Carolina tried to alleviate the pressure
of slave rebellion in other ways. Laws were passed requiring better food
and clothing for slaves and magnanimously limiting slave working hours to
fifteen a day. Also, the frightened South Carolinians placed a high tariff on
importing slaves, and used the revenue to subsidize the immigration of white
Protestants in order to redress the growing preponderance of Negroes in the
colony. The importation of slaves stopped completely from 1740 to 1744 and
opened again only when the slave traders of Bristol, England, vehemently
complained. But South Carolina partially succeeded in its efforts, and colonial
South Carolina never had quite so heavy a preponderance of Negroes after
1740. In that year, Negroes in South Carolina totaled some thirty thousand
and whites approximately fifteen thousand; while the figures for 1750 are
about thirty-nine thousand Negroes and twenty-five thousand whites.
South Carolina did not scruple to enlist Indians to crush the Negro slaves.
In 1744, the government asked some Indians to apprehend armed runaway
slaves who had formed a base in the woods.
Another slave plot was brewing in 1748. It was again uncovered before ripening.
In 1751, South Carolina found it necessary to provide the death penalty
for slaves even attempting to poison white people, an act which had
lately been occurring frequently. A four-pound reward was offered to any
Negro informer whose tale led to conviction. In 1759, another major revolt
occurred in South Carolina, and in 1761, Negroes returned to systematic poisoning
of their white masters. A Negro rebellion broke out in 1765, but was
suppressed by the militia. Another anticipated revolt at the end of that year
was thwarted by massive precautionary measures, including militia patrols, the
importation of a number of Indians to terrorize the Negro slaves, and putting
up-country settlers as well as North Carolinians on the alert. A hundred slaves
did manage to escape, however, to the swamps of Colleton County.
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