Trading Bonds: Debt, the Association, and the Charleston Slave Trade, 1774–1776

Abstract: The article examines South Carolina's support for a ban on the slave trade in the Continental Association. The slave trade and slavery were vital parts of the South Carolina economy. South Carolina imported more slaves than all other North American colonies combined. Yet South Carolina Patriots and slave-importing merchants supported a ban. They did this because the ban on the slave trade halted the arrival of enslaved persons while facilitating debt collection (especially in rice) for past slave purchases. It was getting paid, not trafficking in humans, that slave traders considered the most important part of their business. This was South Carolina's third temporary ban on the slave trade in a decade. By allowing debt paydowns, these bans avoided potential financial bubbles and functioned as macroeconomic regulation. South Carolina's exports to England in 1775 (occurring after the Association was announced) were its most valuable of the entire colonial era. These shipments paid down debt and build up capital in England, continuing even after the war began. Carolina merchants correctly presumed South Carolina-English commercial ties (in capital, agricultural products, and human captives) would resume at war's close. In this reading, Carolinians supported the Association out of economic self-interest because it allowed them to maintain greater commercial ties with England than we have often assumed.