From Hands to Tutors: African Expertise in the South Carolina Rice Economy
Author(s)
Carney, Judith A.
Abstract
Compares rice cultivation by Africans in the coastal areas and inland wetlands of West Africa with the development of rice culture in South Carolina during the colonial and national periods by slave labor. Using charts, diagrams, travelers’ accounts, planters’ records and other primary sources, this article shows that the slave played an instructional role in developing rice cultivation as well as the well-known arduous one as field hand. Rice culture was also introduced by Africans into the French West Indies, Mexico and Surinam. The author’s intent is to dispel any lingering beliefs that African slaves contributed only their labor to American agriculture.
