The growing wealth of South Carolina’s rice economy expressed that slaves were far more profitable than any other form of labor available to the colonists. Tailfer and Stephens wanted to recreate the plantation economy of South Carolina in the Georgia Low country on the base of slavery.
Georgians’ campaign to lift up the ban on slavery was underway and strengthen in the late 1730s. The two most important leaders were a Lowland Scot named Patrick Tailfer and Thomas Stephens, the son of William Stephens, the Trustees’ secretary in Georgia. They and their band of supporters bothered the Trustees with letters and petitions in demand of permitting slavery in Georgia
Before the late 1730s, the Trustees were not under any serious pressure to lift the ban.
The circumstances changed dramatically in 1742 when Oglethorpe defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Bloody Marsh and returned to England. When he was not here, a growing number of settlers became more willing to ignore the ban on slavery.
In 1755, the slave code was replaced by the Trustees. Later 1765 and 1750 code was amended twice accordingly.
