The Politics of Produce · Episode 9 of 17 · 18 min
Carolina Gold: Rice and the Knowledge They Stole
Carolina's rice fortune rested on agricultural knowledge the planters lacked: West Africans from the Rice Coast were trafficked partly for their cultivation expertise. The episode covers the deadliest plantation labor in North America, Maroon rice plots that meant autonomy, and the Gullah/Geechee inheritance today. The scholarly Black Rice debate is presented as unsettled.
Who's who
- Judith Carneygeographer who wrote Black Rice arguing Africans transferred rice knowledge
- David Eltisco-author of the 2007 critique of the Black Rice thesis
- Philip Morganco-author of the 2007 critique of the Black Rice thesis
- David Richardsonco-author of the 2007 critique of the Black Rice thesis
Where it happens
- Charleston, South Carolina+2 more episodesrichest city in British North America on rice and indigo
- Upper Guinea coast, West Africarice-growing region of origin for many captives
- Surinamesite of large Maroon rice-growing communities
- Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridorheritage area from Wilmington, N.C. to Jacksonville, Fla.
Timeline
- 1670English colonists found Charles Town
- Early-mid 1700splanters shift to tidal rice cultivation
- 1739Stono Rebellion erupts in rice country
- 1861-1865Civil War shatters the tidewater rice economy
- 2006Congress creates the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
Still debated
Carney argues enslaved Africans transferred a whole rice knowledge system, while Eltis, Morgan, and Richardson say the evidence for wholesale technology transfer is weaker. The episode presents it as a live disagreement.