Georgia Historical Society

 When Rice Reigned

Long before cotton became king, rice ruled the lowcountry.  In Georgia, as in South Carolina, a planter elite quickly established itself after Parliament removed the export duty on rice and when royal policy lifted limitations on the number of land grants to individuals.  Planters grabbed prime rice-growing land by the thousands of acres, and soon fewer than five percent of Georgia landholders owned twenty percent of the land – a situation the founding Trustees had hoped to prevent.  The labor intensive crop coupled with the imported slaves’ experience in lowland agriculture led to a heavy dependence on slave labor by whites, and soon slaves outnumbered whites in the coastal lowcountry.  After the slaves harvested the rice, the Atlantic trade system carried it to locations as far away as South America and Europe.

The rice country slave system initially resembled the structure employed in the West Indies, a harsh gang system of long, hard days in marshy fields with a whip-bearing overseer close behind.  Because of slave resistance, this form gave way to the more lenient task system which allowed slaves to have time to themselves once their given tasks were completed.  Getting to the fields early and working hard allowed the slaves to enjoy time together later in the day and tend their own gardens and livestock.  Under this structure, imported slaves saved many of their traditions and language, adapting and combining their diverse ways into an amalgamated “Gullah” culture and speech.  Gullah culture formed the basis for many slave communities, a significant one of which existed in Liberty County. 

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