African slaves were thus able to create stronger communities with less interference and direct supervision. Due to the Africans’ ability to resist malaria better than whites, a system developed by which slaves were largely left alone by whites, who tended to stay in cities like Charleston rather than spending large amounts of time on the plantations. Plantation owners had intentionally imported slaves from the “rice coast” of Africa to apply their expertise in South Carolina’s rice fields. Wood argues that in the years before Stono, African slaves were highly successful and retained much of their African past. Wood chose South Carolina for his study because slaves were present from the founding of the colony and by the second generation comprised a majority of South Carolina’s population (xiv).
Wood remarks that although slavery’s importance to colonial South Carolina has never been questioned by historians, few have thoroughly researched it, despite sources being available. Wood examines the intersection of colonial history and black history in South Carolina. Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion.
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