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 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE SLAVE IN SOUTH CAROLINA, 1670 - 1740

by M. Eugene Sirmans

The Journal of Southern History Vol. 28, No. 4 (Nov., 1962), pp. 462-473 (12 pages)

From 1668 to 1829, 145,000 people were shipped from the slave trading port at St. Louis, Senegal. From 1668 to 1843, 126,000 people were shipped from the slave trading port of Bissau on the coast of modern day Guinea Bissau, West Africa. These are the lands were Balanta people were living. From these two slave trading ports, 6,400 people were brought to the Gulf Coast, 10,000 people were brought to the port at Charleston, South Carolina, 4,500 people were brought to Chesapeake, and 1,400 people were brought to New York. In addition, 85,800 people were brought to the Islands of the West Indies. If you are a Balanta descendant living in America today, the most likely scenario is that your Balanta ancestor was one of those people. More specifically, there is a high probability that your ancestors were brought to Barbados and then brought to the Carolinas or, after rice was introduced, brought directly to the Carolinas. Thus, the following research is particularly relevant to Balanta people.