All of these slave codes were passed because of whites’ fear of slave uprisings. They were intended to prevent slaves from escaping or even being freed by sympathetic masters. Many whites feared that large numbers of freed or escaped slaves would band together and strike back against slaveholders. They hoped that creating and enforcing these laws would control blacks and prevent them from escaping the grip of slavery.
This fear of slave uprisings only increased with the advent of the Revolutionary War in 1775. Revolutionary leaders in North Carolina worried that the British would try to exploit this fear and encourage revolts among the colony’s slaves. In fact, the British offered to help slaves escape if they would fight against the colonists, and a number of North Carolina slaves took them up on this offer. The North Carolina Provincial Congress passed a ban on importing slaves in 1774, because they felt increasing the number of slaves in the colony would increase the number of escapees and freed blacks. After the war ended in 1783 and the new country was founded, however, tension between whites and blacks in the state continued to increase.
