1794: The South Carolina legislature passed a law making it strictly illegal for any black person from the West Indies to enter the state.

1794: The South Carolina legislature passed a law making it strictly illegal for any black person from the West Indies to enter the state. This legislative action followed similar restrictive statutes in Georgia and preceded bans in North Carolina and Maryland. Municipal records show that Charleston continued to pay for the “passage” and “confinement” of French Negroes arriving in smaller numbers through 1795. These laws aimed to protect the slave system from the revolutionary influence of veterans of the Saint-Domingue uprising. The across-the-board crackdown signaled a coordinated effort by southern states to insulate themselves from the “common wind” of liberty.