3 Laws Which Embedded Racism In The U.S. South
Draconian laws punished the black population of South Carolina after the 1739 Stono Rebellion, cementing racism in the South.
Photo by Tasha Jolley on Unsplash.
Seething animosity spearheaded the 1739 Stono Rebellion. Jemmy, a literate black man, led an uprising against the profound injustice of slavery. Jemmy and his men rebelled against the whippings, beatings and humiliating torture plaguing their lives. They rebelled against the suppression of their race. The aim of reaching Spanish Florida, the land of promised freedom, was never achieved. More than twenty white people were killed during the rebellion before it was squashed.
In 1740, the South Carolina legislature responded to the violent rebellion with ‘An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing Negroes’ to keep slaves in ‘due subjection and obedience’.
Below are 3 reprehensible laws from that Act, which helped embed and legalize racism in the U.S. South.
1. People born to slaves become slaves themselves
‘[All negroes] shall be, and they are hereby declared to be, and remain forever hereafter, absolute slaves, and shall follow the condition of the mother…’
If your mother was a slave, you were a slave. This was made law, which established generation after generation of slaves. Instead of trying to understand why rebellion struck, the legislature introduced laws to tighten the shackles of the black population.
2. It is illegal to teach slaves how to write
Anyone caught teaching a slave to write would have to ‘forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money.’
The rebellion leader was literate. In the eyes of this law, educated slaves = dangerous slaves. To ensure white supremacy, the legislature made it illegal to provide slave’s with an education.
3. No slave is to leave their plantation
Slaves were forbidden from leaving their plantations; they were imprisoned on their farms because they dared to stand up to their white masters. The legislature decided that slaves should be penned in, like livestock, to prevent gatherings of the black population.
Although this act also introduced laws to protect slaves from their masters, the punishments for white people were lenient. If a white master murdered their slave, they were only fined; however, if a slave merely acted aggressively towards a white person, they would be killed:
‘…in case any such slave shall grievously wound, maim or bruise any white person, though it be only the first offence, such slave shall suffer death.’
Harrowing inequality.
This legislation set a trend for unequal rights, which arguably still lasts to this day. Even after slavery was abolished, black people suffered decades of discrimination. Black people were not given equal opportunities to pursue happiness, and this is something America still struggles with: providing equal opportunities for all.
Further reading and sources
I must make it clear that all views I expressed in this piece were my own. My views were not influenced at all by the following sources, which I used to help me construct this article:
1.) Quotes were taken directly from the legislation, found here: https://ushistoryscene.com/article/excerpts-south-carolina-slave-code-1740-no-670-1740/
2.) These Truths: A History Of The United States, by Jill Lepore
A marvelously thorough history of America; most of my information came from this book. I would highly recommend it for anybody interested in American History.
3.) Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion by Peter Wood (New York : Norton, 1974)
4.) Cry Liberty: The Great Stono River Slave Rebellion of 1739 by Peter Charles Hoffer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010)
5.) Calling Out Liberty: The Stono Slave Rebellion and the Universal Struggle for Human Rights by Jack Shuler (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009)
6.) An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing Negroes, 1740, in David J. McCord, ed., The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, 22vols. (Columbia, SC: A.S. Johnston, 1840), 7:397.
