Black South Carolinians are residents of the state of South Carolina who are of African ancestry. This article examines South Carolina's history with an emphasis on the lives, status, and contributions of African Americans. Enslaved Africans first arrived in the region in 1526, and the institution of slavery remained until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Until slavery's abolition, the free black population of South Carolina never exceeded 2%. Beginning during the Reconstruction Era, African Americans were elected to political offices in large numbers, leading to South Carolina's first majority-black government. Toward the end of the 1870s however, the Democratic Party regained power and passed laws aimed at disenfranchising African Americans, including the denial of the right to vote. Between the 1870s and 1960s, African Americans and whites lived segregated lives; people of color and whites were not allowed to attend the same schools or share public facilities. African Americans were treated as second-class citizens leading to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In modern America, African Americans constitute 22% of the state's legislature, and in 2014, the state's first African American U.S. Senator since Reconstruction, Tim Scott, was elected. In 2015, the Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina Statehouse after the Charleston church shooting.
Colonial South Carolina
Enslaved Africans first arrived in the area that would become South Carolina in 1526 as part of a Spanish expedition from the Caribbean. In 1670 when the British Empire colonized the region, the Lords Proprietor established the Province of Carolina and created a plantation-style economy that increasingly relied on enslaved labor. By 1708, the enslaved African population in South Carolina exceeded the number of free whites. This black majority existed in the state until the Great Migration in the early twentieth century, with some temporary fluctuations.
Slave Trade
Unlike her more northern colonies, South Carolina's introduction to slavery was based largely on a preexisting enslavement system from the Caribbean in the late seventeenth century. Many of the colony's first white settlers immigrated from Barbados. By 1700, South Carolina's system of slavery resulted in the development of the rice and indigo cash crop industry. Contrary to popular understanding, cotton was not a big factor until the early 1800s. By the eighteenth century, most of the slave trade in South Carolina was under the control of the Royal African Company, established by the British monarchy to facilitate trading in west Africa. Slave traders typically offered products such as iron and copper bars, brass pans and kettles, cowry shells, old guns, gunpowder, cloth, and alcohol in return for African slaves; ships typically loaded between 200 and over 600 slaves.
Charleston, South Carolina, named Charles Town in colonial times, was a major global port for trading goods and slaves. More than half of the slaves that came to British North America passed through Charles Town. By 1770, more than 3,000 African slaves were imported to the city annually. The International African American Museum, opening in 2022, is being built in Charleston, South Carolina, on the site where Gadsden's Wharf, the disembarkation point of up to 40% of all American slaves, once stood.
When slaves arrived in the city, they were often inspected and auctioned at the local market. Potential buyers inspected male slaves for characteristics of strength. If a male slave appeared weak, old, or frail, he sold for a lower price than a young, brawny male. Slaves with bruising and scaring from whippings were auctioned more cheaply because buyers were uneasy about purchasing a slave they believed to be rebellious. Women were inspected for characteristics of beauty and child reproduction. Both male and female slaves were inspected for diseases, typically being stripped of their clothing. Some potential buyers even forced open the mouths of slaves to view their teeth, another method of inspecting for disease. Slaves that were not purchased in Charles Town were forced to travel to other slave auction houses, such as in Georgetown or in other colonies.