Being born into a family that was well known for their plantations Ward had a lot on his shoulders as well as the family name. He was taught the skills and knowledge for thriving not only as an adult with responsibilities but also as a plantation owner. Throughout his life, he was given Brookgreen Plantation as well as other plantations. All of those plantations helped with the production of rice. In the 1800s rice production was important to the southern colonies because it was said that,
“To be sure, rice planters were often wealthy, and many planter families were more or less stereotypical grandees. It is important to note, however, that rice plantations, even large ones, were not always extremely profitable (particularly by the late antebellum period), and that many small Lowcountry farmers grew some rice. It is also worth remembering that rice cultivation was concentrated in certain parts of the Lowcountry and that only a minority of Lowcountry farmers grew rice.” (rice encyclopedia)
On Ward’s plantation, he owned 1,092 slaves and in later years his children owned about 1,130 slaves. Additionally, he had many other plantations but Brookgreen was the best well-known one. To further expand the rice production because it was a major commodity crop in South Carolina, Ward bought more enslaved African Americans as laborers for all of the plantations. While he also controlled roughly about 3.9 million pounds of rice.
Besides being a plantation owner and overseeing rice production Joshua John Ward served as a lieutenant governor for South Carolina during the time period of 1850 to 1852 and was under John Hugh Means.
During the 1800s slavery was still a questionable topic whether is was acceptable or immoral. Ward did believe in slavery hence the number of slaves he had and how it helped with his rice production and plantation. He believed that from the social-economic perspective that slavery was necessary. Slavery would help with the structure of life and process as well as the government. Additionally, some slave owners had slaves to help with a punishment, crime, or debt, but also to help escape starvation and homelessness. Joshua John Ward provided for his slaves' spades, hoes, rice hooks, axes, as well as amounts of the corn mill. Additionally, seed served for planting and number of acres planted. So there was some thought for what he did or provided for the slaves because some other slaveholders would just have their slaves do everything on their own without any sort of equipment.
When talking about slave masters and the relationship with their slaves or slavery in general it was looked upon as a violent, no respect relationship. As well as often given a picture of a cold heart man who would whip their slaves, while they worked with terrible living conditions. This is not to say whether slavery is justified or immoral but to explain how there were some cases that were not like the ordinary slave owners. To also better the understanding of how slaves were cared for and treated with their masters. Overall, Joshua John Ward did have slaves, but he channeled that into getting work accomplished and forming a professional relationship with his slaves to help improve production and further better his plantations.
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sources:
https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/rice/
https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/data/32141428
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