History of the United States I / Unit 4 USH1 0470 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Negro Act of 1740
Captions available
The idea
South Carolina's Negro Act of seventeen forty prohibited enslaved people from assembling, prevented them growing their own food, banned learning to write, and restricted free travel.
In practice
A statute passed within a year of the rebellion it answered.
Where people slip
Banning food cultivation and literacy attacks independence and communication, not labour. The law targets the capacity to organise.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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