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The Causes And Consequences Of The South Carolina Negro Seamen's Act, Brandon Boyle
The Causes And Consequences Of The South Carolina Negro Seamen's Act, Brandon Boyle
Bridges: A Journal of Student Research
On December 21, 1822, South Carolina's legislature passed the Negro Seamen's Act in response to the Denmark Vesey conspiracy, a slave uprising that was thwarted five months earlier in Charleston, South Carolina. The Negro Seamen's Act was designed to prevent the local slave population from revolting against the authorities. As a result free black sailors entering the port of Charleston were apprehended upon arrival to prevent them from spreading ideas of revolution and freedom to local slaves. Northern states and foreign nations whose seamen were imprisoned in Charleston jails without committing a crime were appalled. Attorney Benjamin Hunt stressed that …