Primus Plot: South Carolina's First Alleged Slave Conspiracy, Aimed at Destroying Plantations and Fleeing to Spanish Florida

On May 20, 1720, South Carolina authorities learned of a purported conspiracy led by an enslaved man named Primus, who with at least fourteen enslaved people from the upper Ashley River region planned to destroy isolated plantations, recruit additional enslaved people, and march to attack Charleston before escaping to St. Augustine in Spanish Florida. The plot was revealed to the Commons House by an enslaved informant named Andrew. The conspiracy arose amid heightened colonial anxiety — a recent Waccamaw Indian attack, economic instability after the expulsion of the proprietary government in 1719, and fears that Spain would arm enslaved people against white colonists. Primus Plot was South Carolina's first documented alleged slave conspiracy and established the Spanish-Florida corridor as a key vector of Black freedom-seeking.