eir owners, primarily coming with settlers emerging out of Barbados.
             Rice eventually emerged as South Carolina's staple crop, and Wood suggests a direct correlation between the growth of the rice economy of South Carolina and the emergence of a black majority. When compared to Indian or white labor, African labor seemed to provide the most benefits with the fewest costs, and therefore seemed to be the most logical course of action. Since many of the first slaves were re-exported from the Caribbean to Carolina, they provided a relatively cheap source of labor which also posed no political or diplomatic threats. They also were generally servants serving a life term, and therefore, did not have to be replenished or provided for as did their white counterparts. These reasons, along with the far-superior knowledge of Africans concerning rice cultivation and their unexplainable imperviousness to local disease, made Africans the most logical source of labor for the colony. 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.
             As the colony began to expand, the developing black majority played an integral part in the augmentation of the settlement. They provided much of the labor needed to clear land, as well as provide food through fishing and controlling livestock for their masters. 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, after providing their assistance to help the new
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