ABSTRACT
The institution of slavery in colonial South Carolina came closest to the West Indian model of Barbados and Jamaica than any other mainland British territory. Slave laws tell people a great deal about what slaves were actually doing since legislatures tended to be responsive, acting to put a stop to activities that were already happening, rather than preventative. The fourteen slave laws reprinted date between 1690 and 1776 and show how the South Carolina legislature continually tried to refine and improve upon its regulations governing the lives of slaves. The legislature had to balance the need to demonstrate white power through the use of exemplary punishments of slaves with the financial loss that executing slaves entailed. The 1712 slave law established a wide number of capital crimes for slaves, but two years later it was forced to offer transportation as an alternative punishment due to the high cost of compensating the owners of so many executed slaves.
