The African origins of Carolina rice culture

Abstract

This paper examines the cultural origins of rice cultivation in the United States, arguing that its appearance in South Carolina with settlement of the colony from 1670 is an African knowledge system that transferred across the Middle Passage of slavery. The origins of this wetland farming system are explored in relationship to other ethnic groups found in the colony at the time, the English, French Huguenots and native Americans. Also discussed is the development of scholarship on rice origins in West Africa and why scientific knowledge of this issue remained unexplored until this century. The final section addresses the significance of gendered practices in African rice cultivation and processing, and the role of female knowledge systems in the crop’s diffusion across the Atlantic basin to South Carolina.