This year's Summer Reading theme "All Together Now" is meant to bring us all together no matter of our age, socio-economic status, political affiliation or physical location. As library employees we were tasked with coming up with a program or two for adult audiences related to local history that touched on the theme. Bluffton Branch Reference Librarian Debra Henderson suggested that we explore the historical demographics of our state in a program at her branch library.
One fact that a lot of people misunderstand about the history and demographics of South Carolina is how decisions made before the year 1700 have resounded through all the ensuing years. We hope that those who attend our next local history program leave having a better understanding of our state's unique colonial and post-Revolutionary War history. As one of the original thirteen colonies, South Carolina possesses a rich heritage of African American history because of decisions made in Europe beginning in the 16th century that carried over into the settling of South Carolina and its later history. Africans first arrived in the Lowcountry with the Spanish in 1526. When the English Lords Proprietors established control over the land that would later become South Carolina in 1670, they immediately encouraged settlers to purchase and enslave Native Americans and Africans to carve settlements out of the wilderness. Rather quickly, Africans of diverse origins comprised about 20% of the colony's population. Because enslaved people became the colony's major labor force, by 1720 Africans outnumbered white settlers.
By 1740, African Americans made up two thirds of South Carolina’s population, many of whom had first landed at the Sullivan's Island Quarantine Station in Charleston Harbor. That year also marked two firsts in South Carolina: the enactment of a more comprehensive slave code in the wake of the Stono Rebellion (1739) and the enactment of a law curtailing the slave trade. Though the Stono Rebellion occurred in what is now Charleston County, it scared the beejezus out of the planters who owned slaves - and hardened their planters' hearts against any attempts at resistance. The laws governing the enslaved were tightened; the behavior of the whites in charge tightened against Black persons in the state. Peter H. Wood wrote a groundbreaking thesis in 1972 that was turned into a monograph in 1975 entitled Black Majority : Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion has remained in print ever since. Wood explored the consequences of importing the largest single group of non-English-speaking migrants to the North American colonies on United States history through a thorough and penetrating case study of the Palmetto State during the period. He ends it with the Stono Rebellion of 1739 and its aftermath. We highly recommend Wood's book as a key source explaining these early years in the colony.
In spite of the change in importation law, over 58,000 Africans were imported into the colony between 1750 and 1775, the highest number for any of the North American mainland colonies. After 1750 the majority of these imported enslaved people were from the West African areas of Senagambia and Sierra Leone who brought along their skills at rice cultivation, a major cash crop of the colony.
Consequently, imported Africans and their descendants were critical to the development of the area's society and economy. Africans also played a critical role in the Revolutionary War. Join us to learn about African life and activity in in the Lowcountry from 1526 to 1790 from African-American Studies Professor, Meldon Hollis, Jr..
About Professor Hollis: Mr. Hollis has held senior governmental positions at the
municipal, State, and Federal levels. He has served as vice president for
University Relations at Texas Southern University and as a university
administrator at Harvard and the University of Maryland at College Park. He has
taught on the faculty of Northeastern University, the University of Maryland, Howard University and as a visiting professor at Savannah State University.
Over a 35-year work history, he has
served in the Army Security Agency; as special assistant to the Assistant
Secretary for Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; as
director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs; as an attorney; and as a
business consultant. In 1965, while enlisted in the Army, Mr. Hollis received a
Presidential nomination to and attended the United States Military Academy at West
Point.
Mr. Hollis holds an M.A. in government and politics from the
University of Maryland at College Park, and a J.D. and M.P.A. from Harvard
University. He has studied international law and indigenous courts at the
University of Legon in Ghana, West Africa.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Hilton Head Island Gullah Museum.
Saturday, June 24, 2023 - "African Presence in the Lowcountry" with Meldon Hollis, Professor of African American History | 10 AM - Noon | BDC@ Bluffton Branch Library, 120 Palmetto Way
Debra and I hope to see you soon! (And if you do attend, you can mark off the "Participate in a Library Event" block on your SRP 2023 Bingo Card!)
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