Slavery was legally practiced in the Province of North Carolina and the state of North Carolina until January 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Prior to statehood, there were 41,000 enslaved African-Americans in the Province of North Carolina in 1767. By 1860, the number of slaves in the state of North Carolina was 331,059, about one third of the total population of the state. In 1860, there were nineteen counties in North Carolina where the number of slaves was larger than the free white population. During the antebellum period the state of North Carolina passed several laws to protect the rights of slave owners while disenfranchising the rights of slaves. There was a constant fear amongst white slave owners in North Carolina of slave revolts from the time of the American Revolution. Despite their circumstances, some North Carolina slaves and freed slaves distinguished themselves as artisans, soldiers during the Revolution, religious leaders, and writers.
Growth of the slave population in North Carolina.
The Lord Proprietors encouraged importing of slaves to the Province of North Carolina by instituting a headright system that gave settlers acreage for the number of slaves that they brought to the province. The geography was a factor that slowed the importation of slaves. Settlers imported slaves from Virginia or South Carolina because of the poor harbors and treacherous coastline. The enslaved black population grew from 800 in 1712 to 6,000 in 1730 and about 41,000 in 1767.
In the early years, the line between white indentured servants and African laborers was vague, as some Africans also arrived under an indenture, before more were transported as slaves. Some Africans were allowed to earn their freedom before slavery became a lifelong racial caste. Most of the free colored families found in North Carolina in the censuses of 1790–1810 were descended from unions or marriages between free white women and enslaved or free African or African-American men in colonial Virginia. Because the mothers were free, their children were born free. Such mixed-race families migrated along with their European-American neighbors into the frontier of North Carolina. As the flow of indentured laborers slackened because of improving economic conditions in Britain, the colony was short on labor and imported more slaves. It followed Virginia in increasing its controls on slavery, which became a racial caste of the foreign Africans.
The economy's growth and prosperity were based on slave labor, devoted first to the production of tobacco. The oppressive and brutal experiences of slaves and poor whites led to their using escape, violent resistance, and theft of food and other goods in order to survive.
The number of slaves in North Carolina increased from 100,783 in 1790 to 351,059 in 1860. The percentage of population that was slaves varied by county. There were 19 counties in 1860 where the slave population was greater than the free white population in 1860. These counties were in agricultural areas producing cotton, tobacco, rice and naval stores and where larger plantations and farms existed in the coastal plains, Piedmont, and counties bordering Virginia. There were more slaves in both Virginia and South Carolina in 1860. The Appalachian mountain counties had a lower percentage of slaves. The number of slaves in the western North Carolina counties (Davidson, Washington, Tennessee, Sullivan) that became part of Tennessee in 1796 had relatively few slaves.
Slave owners.
Enslaved people labored in a variety of roles. Men, women, and children worked variously as domestic servants, skilled artisans, field laborers, and more in urban settings and on both small farms and large plantations. Plantations are often defined as large land holdings that produced cash crops beyond subsistence requirements. Alternatively, some scholars distinguish a plantation from a farm based on the number of people enslaved by the property owner. The number of slaves on a plantation would vary from tens to over one thousand at larger plantations. Early 1900 efforts to document the number of plantations in North Carolina indicate that there were at least 328 plantations in the state.
Slaves were personal property of their owners and could be sold at the discretion of the owner. Slaves were also conveyed in personal wills of the slave master to heirs. Through records of slave auctions and estate records, the value of slaves were recorded. The value of a slave depended on the gender and age with able bodied male slaves, especially skilled artisans, being the highest. The value of a slave was between £60 and £80 at the time of the French and Indian War (1754–1763). The value of a slave increased to about £180 in 1780 and to about $800 in 1840. At the onset of the Civil War, the value of an enslaved male field hand was $1,500 to $1,700; the average value of an enslaved woman ranged from $1,300 to $1,500; an enslaved artisan with specialized skills was valued at as much as $2,000.
Legal status of enslaved in North Carolina.
Below is a list of dates of laws and events that were relevant to slaves in North Carolina. The full referencing can be found in the linked articles.
Slave religions.
The religion amongst enslaved people was diverse. Some twenty to thirty percent of slaves that came to America were Muslim. A few had heard of Christianity but many followed traditional African religions.
During the 1700s, most enslaved people held on to their native religions and customs from Africa. However, by the early 1800s, enslaved people were converting to Protestant religions—most notably Baptist and Methodist. Some white churches had balconies where enslaved people were allowed to attend services with their masters. Fear of revolts did not allow enslaved people to organize churches until after the Civil War.
References.
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