The fact that many slaves learned highly skilled trades should have been cited as proof that this statement was false. On many plantations, The owners were doing nothing but draining off the profits, because the enslaved people were doing all the work including high level management and skilled trades. This was especially true in South Carolina, which had about 90% Black population during colonial days. In places where the land was too swampy to grow wheat or cotton, it was the recently enslaved people who had to teach the Whites rice growing techniques they had learned in Africa. On the plantations that were actively managed by white enslavers, The enslaved people could have run them if given the chance.