Question

Describe how enslaved and free Black people in South Carolina contributed to the Revolutionary War.
A. South Carolina did not utilize enslaved and free Black people for the patriots’ cause.
B. The British utilized enslaved Black people as bribes to encourage loyalists to fight.
C. Enslaved Black people were shipped to St. Lucia to work on plantations.
D. Most became workers or laborers supporting military forces.

Answer 1

Correct answers: B and D.

- B is true: the British offered freedom and other inducements to enslaved people who fled Patriot masters and supported the Crown (e.g., proclamations promising liberty and recruiting of Black Loyalists), using those offers to weaken Patriot labor and morale.
- D is true: large numbers of enslaved and free Black South Carolinians served as workers and laborers for both sides—building fortifications, hauling supplies, serving as teamsters, cooks, guides, and sailors—and some also saw combat.

- A is false: Patriots did make use of enslaved and free Black people in many noncombatant and some combatant roles.
- C is false as stated: there was not a general program of shipping enslaved South Carolinians to St. Lucia to work plantations as a contribution to the Revolutionary War (some people were evacuated or relocated by the British after the war, but mass transport to St. Lucia is not the correct or primary pattern).