Depiction of the Stono rebellion
SC historical marker for the rebellion
September 9th 1739: Stono Rebellion
On this day in 1739, the Stono slave rebellion - also known as Cato’s conspiracy - occurred in the British colony of South Carolina. The uprising was led by an Angolan slave called Jemmy (or, by some accounts, Cato), who assembled a group of twenty fellow slaves on the banks of the Stono river, just outside Charleston. They stole guns from a local store and marched south towards a promised freedom in Spanish Florida, bearing signs reading “Liberty!”. As they marched, the rebels descended on plantations, killing slaveowners and recruiting more slaves to join their band. The group of slaves, both men and women, ultimately numbered up to one hundred, but their march was halted by a militia of white colonists when they reached the Edisto river. Here, fighting led to the deaths of most of the slaves, with some escaping but eventually being captured and executed, or sent to the West Indies for sale. The Stono rebellion had a significant impact on the system of slavery in colonial South Carolina. While the uprising led to restrictions on slaveowners’ imposition of excessive work and punishments, the murder of over twenty whites during the rebellion prompted a harsh response from the legislature. Oppressive measures were passed to further curtail slave autonomy by banning them from growing their own food, assembling in groups, earning their own money, or learning to read. Of the 250 slave rebellions in American history, the Stono rebellion was the largest before the Revolution, making it an important, if little discussed, instance of enslaved Africans discarding the shackles of bondage and fighting for their freedom.
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