Slavery in South Carolina

Learn about the economics and hardships of slavery in South Carolina

Gospel Choir Performs At The 38th Conference Of The NAACP | History Of SC Slide Collection

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Gospel Choir Performs At The 38th Conference Of The NAACP | History Of SC Slide Collection

Episode 4

The music slaves brought with them from Africa came from a variety of different cultures, and it is impossible in the caption for a single image to recount the history of the blending of those...

Man Playing the Fiddle | History Of SC Slide Collection

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Man Playing the Fiddle | History Of SC Slide Collection

Episode 3

An unknown man, Charleston County, playing the fiddle, around 1900. By rights this photograph should be of a banjo, whose origins are indisputably African. As early as the late 17th century, records...

The Vietnam Experience 360 | Palmetto Scene Former Slave Elias Hill's Untold Story | Palmetto Scene

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Former Slave Elias Hill's Untold Story | Palmetto Scene

Allison Creek Presbyterian Church Pastor, Sam McGregor, explains, “It’s the greatest story of African American liberation that’s never been told…that centered around the life of Elias Hill, who was a...

The Main Steps In The Production Of Indigo | History Of SC Slide Collection

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The Main Steps In The Production Of Indigo | History Of SC Slide Collection

Episode 3

This engraving, also from the 1785 Henry Mouzon map cartouche shows all the main steps in the production of indigo. The plants were harvested in bundles before the stems became woody, then immediately...

Field Workers Harvest Indigo Plant | History of SC Slide Collection

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Field Workers Harvest Indigo Plant | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 2

Workers in the fields harvest the indigo plant during the hot summer months. Engraving from a French book, around 1760. Indigo was a good complement to rice as a crop. Indigo grew well in the high...

African American Workers Thresh Rice with a Flail | History of SC Slide Collection

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African American Workers Thresh Rice with a Flail | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 12

African-American workers thresh rice with a flail around 1910, a technique that is probably African in its origins. Lowcountry planters in colonial South Carolina sought out slaves from the Rice Coast...

Alice Huger Ravenel Smith Watercolor: African American Workers Loading Rice on a Ship | History of SC Slide Collection

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Alice Huger Ravenel Smith Watercolor: African American Workers Loading Rice on a Ship | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 11

An Alice Huger Ravenel Smith watercolor of African-American workers loading rice on a ship to send to market. Note the use of "head-toting" as a way of moving the heavy rice sacks. Courtesy of the...

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Higher Education

This is Brookgreen Gardens, Part 1

Episode 1

Brookgreen's story begins more than 250 years ago when Europeans saw the potential for growing rice here and the backbreaking labor of enslaved Africans carved rice fields out of the swamps...

The Emancipation Proclamation | History of SC Slide Collection

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The Emancipation Proclamation | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 42

The Emancipation Proclamation has often been misunderstood, even by those who admire it. Abraham Lincoln disliked the system of slavery, but he made it clear from the beginning that the war effort was...

Combahee Rice Plantation Raids | History of SC Slide Collection

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Combahee Rice Plantation Raids | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 36

A raid of the Second South Carolina Volunteers among the rice plantations along the Combahee. Published in the July 4, 1863, issue of "Harper's Weekly." Courtesy of the Pratt Memorial Library.

Forfeited Estate Plat in Port Royal | History of SC Slide Collection

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Forfeited Estate Plat in Port Royal | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 35

Forfeited estate plat from Port Royal Island. The surveyor reported, "This tract subject to Mrs. Poingsett's Right of Dower during her life." The plat--an official map made by a surveyor that gave the...

Beaufort's Contraband Problem | History of SC Slide Collection

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Beaufort's Contraband Problem | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 34

The occupation of the Beaufort area enabled many slaves to flee their masters. In the chaos of war and occupation, many brought with them household goods, furniture, and clothing from the homes their...

Petition to Free Slaves, 1815 | History of SC Slide Collection

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Petition to Free Slaves, 1815 | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 17

The legislature of South Carolina retained a great deal of authority over many aspects of everyday life. Roads could not be built, ferries across rivers could not be established, slaves could not be...

Southern Chivalry - Argument Versus Clubs | History of SC Slide Collection

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Southern Chivalry - Argument Versus Clubs | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 16

"Southern Chivalry - Argument versus Clubs," a cartoon by I.L. Magee, illustrated the strong feelings of revulsion that Northerners expressed over the Sumner-Brooks affair. The question of expansion...

Practical Illustration of the Fugitive Slave Law | History of SC Slide Collection

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Practical Illustration of the Fugitive Slave Law | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 15

The lands added to the nation through the conquests of the Mexican War raised anew the question of whether or not slavery would be allowed to expand into the new territories of the west. For two years...

Runaway Slaves | History of SC Slide Collection

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Runaway Slaves | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 14

Runaway slaves were a constant problem in maintaining a workforce of unfree laborers. Slaves ran away because of mistreatment, out of a desire for freedom, or often simply to be reunited with husbands...

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Petition from "Free people of Colour and free Negroes," 1820 | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 7

Petition from "Free people of Colour and free Negroes," 1820. In 1756, the General Assembly passed a law which levied a tax on "All free Negroes, Mulattos and Mestizos who do not pay any other part of...

A Coffle of Slaves | History of SC Slide Collection

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A Coffle of Slaves | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 2

A coffle of slaves is being marched through town by an overseer. From "Slavery in South Carolina," 1862. Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.

Middle Passage for Slaves | History of SC Slide Collection

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Middle Passage for Slaves | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 1

The slave trade continued in South Carolina until the constitutionally set limit of 1808. The "middle passage" for slaves from Africa to the New World was full of hazards. Many slaves did not survive...

Charleston, South Carolina in 1742 | History of SC Slide Collection

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Charleston, South Carolina in 1742 | History of SC Slide Collection

Episode 5

The city of Charleston in 1742 was a bustling port town of 6,800, the fourth largest city in British North America. Half of its population were African-American slaves. They were the labor on which...

Charles Pinckney | S.C. Hall of Fame David Drake a.k.a “Dave the Potter” | S.C. Hall of Fame

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David Drake a.k.a “Dave the Potter” | S.C. Hall of Fame

David Drake was an enslaved African American in Edgefield, South Carolina during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century. He’s known today for the magnificent quality of the pots he made...

South Carolina's Important Role in African American History | Palmetto Scene

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South Carolina's Important Role in African American History | Palmetto Scene

February is African American History Month. Some may ask “Why celebrate African American history...isn’t that American history?” Absolutely, but unfortunately, for hundreds of years, much of the...

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Sarah Grimké | Periscope

Episode 1

Abolitionist Sarah Grimké was born into a wealthy slaveholding Charleston family in 1792. After experiencing the injustices of slavery firsthand, she became a noted speaker for the antislavery...

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Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) | Periscope

Episode 3

Born a slave, Harriet Tubman escaped to freedom and became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. As a conductor, she helped over 300 slaves find their own freedom. After the Civil War, she cared...

Slavery in South Carolina

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