The growing plantation-based economy in the South meant that the number of slaves brought from Africa rose dramatically. By the early 1700s, for instance, slaves outnumbered whites by almost five to one in South Carolina. As the proportion of blacks increased, white anxiety about possible uprisings grew and more systematic control over slaves became commonplace. Laws were enacted that prohibited slaves from carrying weapons and forbade them from learning to read or write. Some slaves managed to learn these skills anyway, and a few managed to secure weapons.
Free blacks. Although slavery was firmly entrenched in the South, not all blacks were slaves. By the year 1860, the number of free blacks in the South amounted to nearly 500,000. While some blacks were born into freedom, others fled from slave states or bought their liberty after years of saving meager earnings from such menial labor as washing clothes or performing carpentry work. Some masters emancipated their slaves, but this was an unusual occurrence. More common were broken promises of freedom.
Nat Turner, for instance, was a Virginia slave who received assurances from his benevolent owner that he would one day be set free.
