Historians agree South Carolina’s rice economy was the product of Anglo-American
entrepreneurship coupled with African-American know-how and labor. Simply put, the coastal
rice economy could not have survived without the knowledge of rice culture that African slaves
brought with them from rice-growing regions of coastal West Africa.
In his book, Black Majority, historian Peter Wood marvels: “Literally hundreds of black
immigrants were more familiar with the planting, hoeing, processing, and cooking of rice than
were the European settlers who purchased them.”
Almost as quickly as tidal rice became profitable, planters recognized the agricultural skill in
West African slaves. They showed great preference in buying these slaves. As one Charleston
slave merchant, Henry Laurens, remarked “Slaves from the River Gambia are preferr’d to all
others.”
Rice slavery on the South Carolina coast was truly a remarkable institution. Slaves brought their
own skills for rice cultivations that, as Peter Woods notes, differed very little from their methods
in Africa. “When New World slaves planted rice in the spring by pressing a hole with the heel
and covering the seeds with the foot, the motion used was demonstrably similar to that employed
in West Africa. In summer, when Carolina blacks moved through the rice fields in a row, hoeing
in unison to work songs, the pattern of cultivation was not one imposed by European owners but
rather one retained from West African forebears.
Peter Wood further notes that even the wide sweet grass baskets used in the fall to separate the
grain from the chaff were “a purely African design.” The design has changed little while
generations of African Americans have passed down the craft.
Even more unique to rice slavery was the “task system.” Rice slaves negotiated with their
overseer through a “driver” slave. Once the driver and overseer agreed on a reasonable amount
of work for a given week, the slaves set out on the task. After completing the work, any
remaining time belonged to the slaves. During this period, they were free to work their own
gardens, fish, and some even hunted wild game – though hunting was very rare. In contrast,
cotton plantations employed the “gang system” with no concept of free time.
The pens adjacent to the slave cabins indicate slaves kept their own livestock. Fossil evidence
from swine found around the slave cabins further suggests that Hopsewee’s slave population
supplemented their diet by raising their own animals.
Rice slavery was unique in two particular ways: the African influence and the task system. The
task system and slave’s own skills encouraged a degree of responsibility among slaves in
managing rice cultivation. This air of autonomy is further reflected in expressions of West
African culture. For example, the high roof with cypress shakes closely follows the high thatched
African style. The pattern follows the African tradition and serves a practical function by
reducing heat in the summer months.Slave’s responsibility for rice production is further expressed by those with important positions.
Head driver slaves negotiated the slaves’ weekly work and served as a foreman on work crews.
Other slaves were given the important responsibility of “trunkmaster.” Trunkmasters oversaw the
in and out tidal flow of water in the marshy rice fields. Proper control of water flow during the
growing season was essential to successful crops. Improper trunkminding could lead to salt water
in the fields, which would ruin the crop.
Freedman’s Bureau contracts between former slaves and masters in the post-Civil War period
kept many of the same arrangements as they had during slavery. Furthermore, these
arrangements provide an idea about slave life and labor expectations on a Santee Rice plantation.
Contracts, for example, included arrangements for handing out farming implements. As during
slavery, planters kept a close watch on their farming tools. Slaves sometimes purposefully lost or
destroyed tools as a means of “passive” resistance.
For more on these topics see:
Coclanis, Peter A. “Rice,” in The South Carolina Encyclopedia. Ed. Walter Edgar. Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 2006.
Littlefield, Daniel C. Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina. Urbana and
Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1981.
Wood, Peter. Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion. New
York: Knopf, 1974.
Thanks to David Dangerfield, Southern Studies Graduate Student, College of Charleston
And thanks to www.Hopsewee.com!
