What do we mean by “the state?”
How is a “state” produced?
Is “the state” something everyone can participate in producing?
Ryan Quintana, an Associate Professor of History at Wellesley College and the author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina, joins us to answer these questions with a look at the creation and development of the State of South Carolina.
About the Show
Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.
It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.
Episode Summary
Ryan Quintana, an Associate Professor of History at Wellesley College and the author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina, joins us to investigate the creation and development of early republic South Carolina.
During our investigation, Ryan reveals what we mean by “space” and how space relates to the study of history; The ways in which Black Carolinians helped to secure South Carolina’s independence; And, how enslaved men and women built the State of South Carolina and used its spaces for their own ends.
What You’ll Discover
- How space relates to the study of history
- What we mean by “space”
- Historical sources for how people thought about space & its meaning
- Ways Black Carolinians supported the American Revolution
- How Black Carolinians helped secure South Carolina’s statehood
- Somerset v. Stewart
- Dunmore’s Proclamation
- Enslaved labor and the State of South Carolina
- The state of South Carolina after the War for Independence
- How South Carolina rebuilt itself after the Revolution
- Acquiring enslaved labor to build the State of South Carolina
- How enslaved people used state work to learn the geography of South Carolina
- How enslaved people used state work to expand their social networks
- The Stono Rebellion
- Maroons and maroon communities in early South Carolina
- How South Carolina attempted to regulate the movement of enslaved people
Links to People, Places, and Publications
- Ryan Quintana
- Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina
- Thongchai Winichakul
- Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped
- Stephanie McCurry, Confederate Reckoning
Sponsor Links
Complementary Episodes
- Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
- Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists
- Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers
- Episode 186: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire
- Episode 190: Jennie Goloboy, Origins of the American Middle Class
Time Warp Question
In your opinion, what might have happened if Great Britain had maintained possession and governance of its 13 rebellious North American colonies? If South Carolina had remained British, what would the role of enslaved people had been in building a British South Carolinian colony?
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