BLACK OAK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 5 



James Town. Their purchase of lands was made 

 from the numerous and warHke tribe of Indians 

 called the Santees. With these people they lived 

 in remarkable friendship, doing them no wrong or 

 injustice. They cultivated the soil for their imme- 

 diate necessities. As soon as compatible with cir- 

 cumstances, they commenced improving their pe- 

 cuniary condition by the cultivation of the staple 

 products of the soil and the manufacture of naval 

 stores. These, as well as indigo dye and rice, 

 were articles of prime necessity to the mother 

 country. She stimulated their production by a 

 bounty upon the articles sent to market. Naval 

 stores were a profitable and healthy pursuit to those 

 who were advantageously located, and Watboo 

 afforded a convenient landing. Fortunes were 

 made by those who engaged in the business with 

 attention and judgment. Among the most success- 

 ful was John Palmer, of Gravel Hill. He com- 

 menced life poor, and left at his death about one 

 hundred negroes to each of his children. In the 

 course of a few years many of the descendants of 

 the colony, finding the river swamp lands higher up, 

 in what afterward became St. Stephen's Parish, to 

 be safer from freshets, gradually bought lands and 

 moved up to the whole extent of the parish, until it 

 became the most densely populated portion of the 

 State out of Charleston. The entire swamp was in 

 like manner populated with slaves. In some cases 



