Black Majority Summary

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Could the majority become the minority? Peter Wood’s Black Majority is a historical book about the rising African population to colonial South Carolina between 1670 and the Stono Rebellion of 1739. He examines how this majority affected the still maturing Colony and how the rise of slavery boosted the economy. Wood argues that Negroes were the majority of the population in South Carolina and the backbone to the economy despite what other historical works say about slavery. The novel illustrates the South Carolina colony being shaped more by the numerical majority rather than the minority, the Englishmen, who had a greater power in the social structure of the colony. Wood’s emphases three main ideas throughout the book to describe how the population …show more content…

They preferred African slaves to European or Native American slaves because they "could be held for unlimited terms, and there was no means by which word of harsh or arbitrary treatment could reach their homelands" (Wood, 43). The ability of the Englishmen to hold slaves for an unlimited amount of time and to use any methods of punishment gave them all the power. The indentured servant only worked to fulfill the previous contract as part of the headright system. Colonists "complained of the 'servants that dayley become free"(41). Since the servants had varying terms of service, it made it difficult to keep enough workers. Native Americans were cheap and did not have to be imported, but knew the land better than the Englishmen and could easily escape. There was also a language barrier and they died relatively quick, which made them not worth the investment. This shows some insight into how the African population started to become …show more content…

They "developed a common routine of removing their families to Newport, Rhode Island, during that portion of the year" (73). By doing this, they lowered the risk of people getting sick and dying. They made a discovery that malaria and yellow fever were what was causing so many people to get sick. However, the African slaves were unaffected to these diseases and could endure working in the fields without getting sick. This being another reason African slaves were prevalent in South Carolina, and how they became the

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