South Carolina, what were you thinking?

[referendum]

I've been studying US history of late, including the slavery controversy. One little known aspect of Slavery in the US was that South Carolina re-legalized the importation of foreign slaves into South Carolina from 1803 until 1808, at which time all foreign slave importations were banned in any US state, as part of an original constitutional compromise. South Carolina did this in order to cash in on the demand for slaves that was envisioned coming from the newly acquired Louisiana purchase territories. About 40,000 new African slaves were brought in over these five years. The South Carolina legislature almost stopped this disastrous immigration in 1805, but it tragically failed to pass the state senate by one vote. This extra 40,000 new slaves represented a little under 10% of the total US slave population at the time. Had South Carolina not done this, its likely that the future overall US slave population, and today's total US black population would have been that much smaller. Talk about a self inflicted shot to the head, South Carolina, what were you thinking?

 

[The Hock]

The same thing that the PTB today are with all their importing of mestizos, namely lower labor costs. Let's sell our tomorrow to make money today. And we're supposed to be the ones with a long time horizon.

 

[Average American]

Referendum, For whatever it's worth.. I have a recommendation for your study of antebellum South Carolina, Prelude to Civil War (The Nullification Controversy) by William Freehling (1965).

I actually think your indictment applies to every state in the Union (north & south of the Mason-Dixon) that ever held slaves. There was never a well-planned exit strategy for slavery. That's part of the reason South Carolina was always at the vanguard of fighting emancipation. Outnumbered by slaves, White (coastal) South Carolinians understood and were terrified by the prospect of being outnumbered by suddenly freed Blacks. SC damn near left the Union 30 years before the Civil War.. South Carolinians saw how the Federal government was selectively subjecting agrarian Southerners to unfair tariffs on imported manufactured goods, and SC presciently realized the Fed. government might do the same regarding abolition (even after Northern states abolished slavery at their individual state levels & their chosen times. Which helped reinforce the precedent of state sovereignty over slavery.)

Efforts to repatriate free Blacks (an exit strategy supported by a younger Lincoln) never worked en masse, due to lack of resources, an inability to find willing hosts in Africa, and many free Blacks didn't want to leave America. Anyways, I love this era of US history.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Section 9 of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution:

"The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."

referendum, I'm not sure where your information about the Constitutional compromise is from, but as you can see, Congress couldn't (and they didn't) legally stop the international slave trade until 1808 (which they did, effective January 1, 1808). SC did bring back the international slave trade within their borders during the period you mentioned, but it wasn't in violation of federal law.

 

[referendum]

Col Reb, what I meant to say was that up until 1808, any state could allow it, but then federal law forbade it. This 1808 date was part of a compromise stemming from the constitutional convention.
Average American, I have read some of Freehlings works, and he makes the important point that pro-Unionists in the upper South were a key part in the failure of the Confederate cause (I believe one of his books is The South against the South).
I've often wished that the American Colonization Society, which sought to send free blacks to their West African ancestral lands, had had greater success. In spite of lack of funding, opposition from pro and anti Slavery supporters, and logistical difficulties, it and similar state backed groups enabled about 12,000 American blacks to migrate to the Liberia area. Too bad the US didn't take over a big chunk of West African territory as an official colony, staff it with liberal do-gooders as doctors, teachers etc., send over some white southern planters, some northern capital, and create a smooth well run US zone that the bulk of American blacks could have been sent to.