Atlantic slave trader John Holman, who "has resided for upwards of twenty five years on the Coast of Africa where he was engaged in commercial transactions the exports of which chiefly entered in South Carolina," seeks to bring a cargo of seventy slaves into South Carolina. Holman recounts that "he formed a scheme of removing to South Carolina with seventy slaves which he had long possessed in Africa" and therefore went to South Carolina in 1787 to purchase land on which he could settle his slaves. He further declares that "he went in conjunction with his friend the Honorable Henry Laurens to the Custom House and informed the Collector Mr George Abbot Hall of his intentions to come with his slaves to settle in South Carolina" and he was informed that "he might freely bring his slaves with him." In February 1788, Holman sailed for Africa; in June 1790, he embarked across the Atlantic for Charleston. Upon his arrival he was informed that he would be fined one hundred pounds for each slave brought into the state under a law passed in November 1788 "which prohibits the importation of all Negroes" and which took effect "in his absence" and by which "he was liable to be reduced to beggary." Holman laments that he was "obliged to seek a temporary residence in Georgia where for several months he has been subject to the inconveniences of wanting a home, friends, money and credit, all of which he could have commanded in South Carolina." He therefore prays that "his peculiar and very hard case" will be taken into consideration and he will be permitted "to come with his slaves and settle in Carolina."
Result: Referred to committee; granted.
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Repository: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
