Black Majority; Book Review

While that effectively ended the revolt, some of the rebels remained at large for days and weeks following the initial violence. For early South Carolinians theses benefits outweighed the difficulties that arose such as a language barrier and, decades later, the expense involved in importing slaves directly from Africa. Granted, this is not necessarily through any fault of Wood’s, since primary sources from the earliest slaves would be difficult, if not impossible, to find. However, the rebel force eventually stopped in a field where they were engaged by a group of white planters and dispersed. His work is well documented and many of his footnotes go beyond giving reference and give further information pertaining to and supporting his arguments. Among these actions were punishments for masters who might be “driving” their slaves to run away or rebel, and the teaching of Christian doctrines of submission and obedience to slaves. As a result of this headright system, many of the first slaves brought into the colony were forced to migrate along with their owners, primarily coming with settlers emerging out of Barbados. All in all, Black Majority is a thorough and impressive work; however, it ends without providing some sort of real summarization of the overall impact this segment of the population had on the colony. Before rice became the staple crop, naval stores drove the economy and whites of South Carolina imported more and more slaves to provide labor for this lucrative business. The book as a whole, seems to be lacking any sort of strong conclusion which would bring together the countless points discussed throughout the work. The fear of revolts or violence drove the whites to seek measure to try and control this segment of the population that far outnumbered them. However, as a result of this early repression of the rights of slaves, the number of runaways steadily increased. Slaves even served in the colony’s militia, playing an acknowledged role in several early defenses of the colony, exemplified in their role during the Yemasee War of 1715. However, the fact remains that his argument is only supported with documents revealing primarily how the white minority saw and reacted to the developing black majority. While Wood does paint a vivid picture of the activities and impact the majority of the population had on the colony, he is (perhaps forced) to illustrate this picture from a decidedly one-sided point of view; a point of view not of the majority, but of the minority.