"March 29th, 1779.—The Committee appointed to take into consideration the circumstances of the Southern States, and the ways and means for their safety and defence, report, That the State of South Carolina (as represented by the delegates of the said State, and by Mr. Huger, who has come hither at the request of the Governor of said State, on purpose to explain the particular circumstances thereof,) is unable to make any effectual efforts with militia, by reason of the great proportion of citizens necessary to remain at home, to prevent insurrection among the negroes, and to prevent the desertion of them to the enemy. That the state of the country, and the great number of these people among them, expose the inhabitants to great danger, from the endeavors of the enemy to excite them to revolt or desert."
At the first census, in 1790, eleven years after this report, and when the slaves had unquestionably greatly increased their numbers, they were only 107,094 fewer than the whites. If, then, these slaves exposed their masters "to great danger," and the militia of South Carolina were obliged to stay at home to protect their families, not from the foreign invaders, but the domestic enemies, what would be the condition of the little blustering nullifying State, with a foreign army on her shores, and 335,000 slaves ready to aid it, while her own white population, militia and all, is but as two whites to three blacks?
You well know that slaveholders, in answer to the abolitionists, are wont to boast of the fidelity and attachment of their slaves; and you also well know, that among themselves they freely avow their dread of these same faithful and attached slaves, and are fertile in expedients to guard against their vengeance.
It is natural that we should fear those whom we are conscious of having deeply injured, and all history and experience testify that fear is a cruel passion. Hence the shocking severity with which, in all slave countries, attempts to shake off an unrighteous yoke are punished. So late even as 1822, certain slaves in Charleston were suspected of an intention to rise and assert their freedom. No overt act was committed, but certain blacks were found who professed to testify against their fellows, and some, it is said, confessed their intentions.
On this ensued one of the most horrible judicial butcheries on record. It is not deemed necessary, in the chivalrous Palmetto State, to give grand and petit juries the trouble of indicting and trying slaves, even when their lives are at stake. A court, consisting of two Justices of the Peace and five freeholders, was convened for the trial of the accused, and the following were the results of their labors:—
| July 2 | 6 hanged, |
| " 12 | 2 " |
| " 26 | 22 " |
| " 30 | 4 " |
| August 9 | 1 " |
| — | |
| Total | 35 |
Now, let it be remembered, that this sacrifice of human life was made by one of the lowest tribunals in the State; a tribunal consisting of two petty magistrates and five freeholders, appointed for the occasion, not possessing a judicial rank, nor professing to be learned in the law; in short, a tribunal which would not be trusted to decide the title to an acre of ground—we refer not to the individuals composing the court, but to the court itself;—a court which has not power to take away the land of a white man, hangs black men by dozens!
Listen to the confessions of the slaveholders with regard to their happy dependents; the men who are so contented under the patriarchal system, and whose condition might well excite the envy of northern laborers, "the great democratic rabble."
Governor Hayne, in his message of 1833, warned the South Carolina Legislature, that "a state of military preparation must always be with us a state of perfect domestic security. A profound peace, and consequent apathy, may expose us to the danger of domestic insurrection." So it seems the happy slaves are to be kept from insurrection by a state of military preparation. We have seen that, during the revolutionary war, the Carolina militia were kept at home watching the slaves, instead of meeting the British in the field; but now it seems the same task awaits the militia in a season of profound peace. Another South Carolinian [12] admonishes his countrymen thus: "Let it never be forgotten that our negroes are truly the Jacobins of the country; that they are the anarchists, and the domestic enemy, the common enemy of civilized society, and the barbarians who would, if they could, become the destroyers of our race."
[ [12] The author of "A Refutation of the Calumnies inculcated against the Southern and Western States."