Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Chapter 1. "The people commonly called Negroes" : becoming African American in South Carolina. The rebellion of San Miguel de Guadalpe -- The king buzzard -- The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina -- Governor announces black majority -- Governor urges curtailing of the African slave trade -- An act for the better ordering and governing of negroes and slaves -- The Stono Insurrection described by a descendant of the leader -- Chapter 2. "De bless fa true, dem wa da wok haad" : the development of South Carolina's slave society. An act for the better ordering and governing of negroes and other slaves in this province -- Two poetic views of miscegenation -- Henry Laurens discusses ethnic preference of slave purchases -- The dangers of slavery -- Henry Laurens urges emancipation -- An act for the regulation of the militia of this state -- Continental Congress proposes arming slaves -- Years of the Haitian Revolution in Charleston -- The Gullah beatitudes -- Slave literacy law -- Old man Hildebrand -- The "positive good" of slavery -- The mudsill theory --

Chapter 3. "A jubilee of freedom" : liberty and emancipation in South Carolina. Boston king recalls his joining the British Army -- David George founds the Silver Bluff Church -- The conversion of John Marrant -- Testimony of the Vesey plot -- Our wretchedness in consequence of the preachers of the religion of Jesus Christ -- Rules and regulations of the Brown Fellowship Society -- Charles Ball describes his escape from slavery through South Carolina -- Description of a maroon camp -- Susie King Taylor remembers the Thirty-third USCT -- Robert Smalls captures the CSS Planter -- Charlotte Forten teaches freedmen on the Sea Island -- The terrible massacre at Fort Wagner -- Sherman consults African American leaders ahead of Special Field Order No. 15 -- Freed slaves parade in Charleston -- Chapter 4. "All men are born free and equal" : the era of Reconstruction. South Carolina "Black Codes" -- Address of the State Colored Convention to the white inhabitants of South Carolina -- Freedmen's Bureau marriage rules -- Cardozo's speech advocating land redistribution -- The South Carolina Constitution -- Reports of outrages committed by whites against freedmen -- Robert Brown Elliott on the Civil Rights Bill -- Benjamin McElmarray's testimony regarding the Ellenton Riot --

Chapter 5. "Each tomorrow will find us farther than today" : black life in the New South. Black republicans visit President-Elect -- Robert Smalls warns against disfranchisement at the Constitutional Convention -- The lynching of postmaster Frazier Baker -- Our returned negro soldiers -- The kind of democracy the negro race expects -- Colored teachers in Charleston schools -- Negro farmers in South Carolina -- The goal -- Modjeska Monteith Simkins challenges governor over white supremacy -- Southern schrecklichkeit -- Chapter 6. "We shall overcome" : the African American revolution in the Palmetto State. I'll overcome some day -- The Progressive Democratic Party urges boycott of democratic polling places -- Majority opinion in Elmore v. Rice -- The negro in America today -- Septima Clark recalls her firing over membership in the NAACP -- Freedom rider remembers first blood in South Carolina -- Demands of black Charlestonians -- Chapter 7. "Common ground" : a new generation of black South Carolinians. Keep hope alive -- Never had it made -- NAACP boycott resolution -- Race is still an issue -- We stood there -- Barack Obama's South Carolina primary victory speech.

The first comprehensive five-century chronicle of the South Carolina African American experience.