of Carolina. Rice and indigo are adapted to different growing seasons, planted and harvesting would occur at different times allowing a single labor force to work both crops. The labor force to this rice/indigo crop was slave labor. The growing of rice and indigo involved using large numbers of slaves. This was the economic base upon which was built the southern aristocracy. In 1720 the population was estimated at 9,000 whites and 39,000 negroes. At the time of the revolution (1775) the numbers were 70,000 whites and 100,000 negroes. In addition to this population difference there was a wide social gulf between plantations owners and slaves. With negroes outnumbering the whites fear of insurrection became a constant feature of south carolina. The negroes spot at the bottom of the social ladder was fixed by law. The social ladder in Carolina was the home to an immature aristocracy, for it had no real middle class. By the beginning of the eighteenth century it had created two carolinas; an aristocratic save owning and an affluent plantation society. The government of the southern colonies was in complete control of the planter-merchant aristocracy of Charleston. Charleston was the center of Carolina aristocracy. It was a wealthy, prosperous center of economic, cultural, and commerce from which nearly 200 ships cleared in 1748, of which 68 sailed for Europe carrying in all exports to the value of L1,179,559 south carolina currency. Charleston was a great boom town of the eighteenth century. One of the features of the Backcountry was that it contained large numbers of non-english of society. Most of them non-english were white middle class settlers with few slaves. It was an agrarian society, farming at the self-sufficiency with some tobacco. It was a frontier stage of settlement, few slaves, white men worked with thier own hands at clearing the land and the raising of houses. There was neither time nor money for luxury. No schools for chi...
