User:Randiraefair/Personal Sandbox

Negro Seamen Act of 1822

The Negro Seamen Act of 1822 was a South Carolina state law which required free African American employees aboard foreign or domestic ships coming into a South Carolina port to be imprisoned until the ship was ready to depart. Playing on slaveholders' brewing fear that their slaves would be influenced by free blacks from overseas and the North to demand their freedom and finally enacted after slaveholders discovered a plot by free blacks to overthrow slave society, the Negro Seamen Act of 1822 sought to restrict the mobility and freedom of any free African American employed on ships entering South Carolina ports and harbors. Under this law the mariners remained captive until the captain of the vessel paid expenses of their detention. Failure to do so would mean the seamen would be sold into slavery, even if they were foreign citizens.

The law arose from the discovery of a plot for slave rebellion in Charleston under the leadership of Denmark Vesey, a free black man. It was thought that other free black sailors coming into the harbors of the state would encourage this rebellion.

South Carolina's Slave History -

South Carolina was a slave colony since its inception. Although the first Africans arrived in 1526 as part of a large Spanish expedition from the West Indies, planters who later emigrated from Barbados established slavery on a greater scale in the Carolinas on indigo and rice plantations in the mid 1700's. Most of the slaves brought to South Carolina came from the West Coast of Africa, more specifically from a region called the Gold Coast. One of the reasons South Carolina planters wanted slaves from the coastal regions of Africa was that they already knew how to grow rice since the crop had been a dominant part of African culture since 1500 BC. Rice was both incredibly labor intensive and incredibly profitable. So not only did rice planters need more help than other planters, they could afford it.

To appreciate the real impact of slavery, one must take a look at the race ratios. South Carolina had a clear black majority from about 1708 through most of the eighteenth century. By 1720 there were approximately 18,000 people living in South Carolina and 65% were African American slaves. By 1790 there were 15,402 whites to 51,846 Africans, 775 of them free. State officials realized the enormous slave population and began drawing up legislation to control slaves. to this end, they created the Slave Code of 1740 which was a series of laws aimed at controlling the population of enslaved African Americans. It prohibited slaves from gathering without white supervision, learning to read and write, and growing their own food. It also created harsher punishments for disobeying the law. The legislature enacted the Slave Code shortly after the Stono Rebellion, which reinforced slave owners’ fears of slave uprisings.

The state became afraid that the co-mingling of free black sailors with southern slaves would bring about insurrection and demand for their freedom. Southern racial ideology demanded that free blacks be submissive and dependent essentially slaves without masters. Northern black sailors claiming their freedom and respect challenged the underpinnings of Southern society. Governor John Wilson referred to transient free black sailors as those afflicted with infectious disease. Whites prophesied that their slaves would be seduced from the service of their masters. With the paranoid belief among white Charlestonians that no "evil of greater magnitude could exist than the constant intercourse which is maintained between the blacks of the North and the South," black sailors became prime targets of the state of South Carolina.

In June of 1822 a plot by African church leaders to overthrow the slave system by killing governor Wilson and slaveholders while freeing slaves was discovered. The leaders, Denmark Vesey and Gullah Jack, along with 34 others were executed. On December 21, 1822 the South Carolina legislation passed an act the required free black employees on any vessel which might come into a South Carolina port be imprisoned until the vessel is ready to depart and that the captain of the vessel pay expenses of their detention and take them away from the state. Upon failure to do this, the black prisoners would be deemed "absolute slaves" and sold.

Denmark Vesey -

In 1771, fourteen-year-old Denmark Vesey was transported from St. Thomas to Cape Francais by slave trader Captain Joseph Vesey. Captain Vesey later settled in Charleston, South Carolina and kept Denmark as a domestic slave. in 1799 Denmark purchased his freedom with $600 of a $1500 prize he won in the East Bay Street Lottery. He didn't have enough money to purchase the freedom of his wife and children, however, and some claim that this was the motivation to destroy the institution of slavery.

In 1817 Vesey joined the newly formed African Methodist Episcopal Church. Preaching to a small group each week in his home, Vesey preached from the Old Testament, particularly Exodus, and taught followers that they were the New Israelites, the chosen people whose enslavement God would punish with death. White Charlestonians constantly monitored the African church, disrupting services and arresting members. Toward the end of the year, 469 black worshippers were arrested on disorderly conduct charges. Thought the arrested group was discharged, they were on notice as to what might happen to them at any time. Later on a June Sunday in 1818, the city guard arrested 140 free African Americans and slaves and lodged them in the guard house.

In 1822, Vesey and other leaders from the African Church began plotting a rebellion. His co-conspirator was an East African priest named Gullah Jack, who led conspirators in prayer and rituals and gave them amulets to protect them in battle. Vesey set the date for revolt on July 14, and men from Charleston and surrounding plantations planned to seize Charleston's arsenals and guard houses, kill the Governor, set fire to the city, and kill every white man they saw. (Lofton, p. 141) But in June, several nervous slaves leaked the plot to their masters, and Charleston authorities began arresting leaders. (Lofton p. 148) Vesey was captured on June 22, and he and the conspirators were brought to trial. Despite torture and the threat of execution, the men refused to give up their followers. On July 2nd, Denmark Vesey and five other men were hanged.

In the aftermath of the Vesey rebellion, the African Church was burned down and authorities passed a series of laws further restricting the rights of Charleston slaves.

Constitutional Issues -

The Negro Seamen Act was condemned by the federal government as a clear violation of trade agreements with the British, whereas the government of South Carolina asserted that, as a previously sovereign state having entered into the union with a more powerful one, still possessed certain rights in dealing with its own internal issues. Supreme Court Justice William Johnson in his capacity as a circuit judge, declared how this law was unconstitutional as it violated US treaties with Great Britain. South Carolina's senate declared the judge's ruling invalid and that the Act would be enforced. The federal government did not attempt to carry out Johnson's decision.

The captain of one of the American ships appealed to the South Carolina courts for the release of two of his seamen, charging that the Act of 1822 was in violation of the Constitution. The lower court upheld the constitutionality of the act and the state's highest tribunal refused to overrule it. South Carolina BF Hunt defended the law. He declared that it was the right of any sovereign state to prohibit the entry of foreigners. He said the all the state had done was "to require free persons of color...to take up their abode in a very airy and healthy part of the city until the vessel in which they had arrived in was ready to depart." He added that the law was a mere police regulation, in the nature of a quarantine law.

Great Britain -

Britain sought to persuade the federal government to annul the acts but the US was unwilling to do this. Britain issued a warning to British seamen and no further appeals were made to the US. Within a few weeks of enactment of the law, the mate and four seamen of a British ship from Nassau had been taken to jail. with difficulty, their release was secured upon payment of the expenses of their imprisonment. When this was reported to Stratford Canning, British minister in Washington, he sent to John Quincy Adams, secretary of state, a letter. He protested against the South Carolina law as the "most grievous and extraordinary treatment accorded His Majesty's subjects under it" and he requested that the US government take action to "prevent the recurrence of any such outrage in the future."

Similar Laws in Other States -

Hearing word of the planned riots provoked Georgia legislature in 1829 into imposing a 40 day quarantine on all vessels with free black seamen on board and requiring the incarceration of any black sailor ashore or in contact with slaves. . Then in 1830 North Carolina passed a similar law. It included a 30 quarantine on ships which enter the state with free black on board and any free black which disobeyed was imprisoned. Then in 1832 Florida's legislators prohibited all free blacks, including sailors, from entering the territory on pain of punishment. The law declared it unlawful for any free black to come into or be brought into the territory on threat of punishment. Captains of vessels bringing in a free African American was required to give bond to pay the expenses of his imprisonment and take him away. A free black coming into the state of his own accord was to be expelled and if he should return he was to be sold for five years to the highest bidder. In 1839 Alabama shut its ports to blacks and three years later Louisiana's legislature required New Orleans police to arrest incoming sailors of color (other than state residents) and imprison them until their vessel's departure.

Impact on Free Blacks -

from July to September 1822, 154 black mariners went to jail. Jail expenses were considerable to the shipowners who were legally liable. Black mariners absorbing the cost of a southern port stay found weeks or even months of their wags deducted. Jail expenses were considerable for ship owners who were legally liable and devastating for wage-earning sailors to whom the owners passed on the cost. Denied a sufficiency of food and compelled to perform various menial tasks while in prison, hundreds of incarcerated sailors became angry and withdrawn . In 1818, a slave named William Grimes went with a black sailor into town and procured some supplies. He then climbed into a prearranged space or cotton bales. He got ashore safely in New York.