The Stono Rebellion (September 9th 1739) was the bloodiest slave uprising in the Thirteen Colonies. Between 60 to 90 were killed, at least 20 of them White. It started along the Stono River in South Carolina near Charles Town (Charleston).
It was part of a wave of slave uprisings and plots in British America:
- 1733: St John
- 1736: Antigua
- 1738: Jamaica
- 1739: South Carolina
- 1740: South Carolina
- 1741: New York
Kongolese Catholics seemed to have been at the heart of the Stono Rebellion. That meant:
- They likely had experience fighting with guns from the wars in the Kongo in the 1720s and 1730s.
- The Spanish in Florida offered those who reached Fort Mose freedom and land, as fellow Catholics and to undermine the British.
Since 1732, at least 250 runaway slaves had reached Fort Mose from South Carolina.
In August 1739, South Carolina doubled its slave patrols and strengthened its militia, fearing that
“our Negroes … are more dreadfull to our safety than any Spanish invaders”
On September 7th, news hit of war between Spain and Britain. Getting to Florida was only going to get harder.
On September 9th, before daybreak, Jemmy (also known as Jimmy or Cato) and 20 other slaves assembled at a bridge on the Stono River. His master had taught him how to write, so he was able to write them passes.
They stormed a storehouse, cut off the heads of the two men who were there and took its guns and gunpowder. They left the two heads on the front step.
Then they took the Pons Pons Road south, the main road to Florida.
Along the way they killed White people who lived by the road, men, women, and children, taking their supplies, their rum, burning down their houses. They skipped past Wallace’s Tavern because Wallace was kind to his slaves.
They marched down the road shouting “Lukango!” (liberty), flying banners and playing drums while other slaves joined their ranks.
By late afternoon, when they were ten miles down the road, at the ferry crossing of the Edisto River, they numbered 70 to 100.
But then they stopped. Drunk on victory or rum or for some other reason, they danced, ate and drank.
That gave the militia time to catch up. In the shoot-out that followed, as many as 15 died. The rest ran for the woods. In the course of a week, 50 of them were hunted down and killed, their heads put on the mileposts on the road back to Charles Town. Of the rest, some probably made it all the way to Florida.
The following June, 150 slaves gathered near Charles Town to storm yet another storehouse of guns, but this time one of the slaves gave away the plot. Fifty slaves were hanged, ten at a time.
That year South Carolina became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to outlaw teaching slaves how to read. The Negro Act of 1740 also made it against the law for slaves to assemble in groups, play drums, grow their own food, make their own money and so on. It remained in force till 1865.
Thanks to Herneith for reminding me of the anniversary.
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
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“The following June, 150 slaves gathered near Charles Town to storm yet another storehouse of guns, but this time one of the slaves gave away the plot. Fifty slaves were hanged, ten at a time.”
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Draptomania!– was a conjectural mental illness that, in 1851, American physician Samuel A. Cartwright hypothesized to cause Black slaves to flee captivity.[1]:41 It has since been debunked as pseudoscience[2]:2 and part of the edifice of scientific racism.[3]
“In Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race, Cartwright points out that the Bible calls for a slave to be submissive to his master, and by doing so, the slave will have no desire to run away.[4]
If the white man attempts to oppose the Deity’s will, by trying to make the negro anything else than “the submissive knee-bender” (which the Almighty declared he should be), by trying to raise him to a level with himself, or by putting himself on an equality with the negro; or if he abuses the power which God has given him over his fellow-man, by being cruel to him, or punishing him in anger, or by neglecting to protect him from the wanton abuses of his fellow-servants and all others, or by denying him the usual comforts and necessaries of life, the negro will run away; but if he keeps him in the position that we learn from the Scriptures he was intended to occupy, that is, the position of submission; and if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his hearing towards him, without condescension, and at the same time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away.[4]”
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“If treated kindly, well fed and clothed, with fuel enough to keep a small fire burning all night–separated into families, each family having its own house–not permitted to run about at night to visit their neighbors, to receive visits or use intoxicating liquors, and not overworked or exposed too much to the weather, they are very easily governed–more so than any other people in the world. If any one or more of them, at any time, are inclined to raise their heads to a level with their master or overseer, humanity and their own good requires that they should be punished until they fall into that submissive state which was intended for them to occupy. They have only to be kept in that state, and treated like children to prevent and cure them from running away.[6]”
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So the negro act made slave self sufficiency illegal and required complete dependency on the white man? It’s all coming together….
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“The Negro Act of 1740 also made it against the law for slaves to assemble in groups, play drums, grow their own food, make their own money and so on.”
Like the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, the Negro Act of 1740 is still very much in effect. Especially the “assemble in groups” part. I’ve experienced that rule first hand on many occasions.
The South Carolina Negro Act of 1740 had ripples throughout the country. Enslaved Africans in the Hudson River Valley were also affected in their ability to gather for their favorite festival of the year, Pinkster.
American Legacy magazine describes Pinkster as a festival:
By the early 1800s, White politicians passed laws to stifle the gatherings of Black people at Pinkster. According to that same article:
http://www.americanlegacymag.com/pinkster/
Sometimes people forget that the life conditions of Black people in America (and the Diaspora) today are the result of hundreds of years of European greed, fear and control. Decisions like words can have long lasting consequences.
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@fan
So the slavery of Black people was a mandate by God? Please excuse me, but my head is about to explode and I will be busy cleaning up the mess on my keyboard.
@Abagond
Damn. This was a hard read.
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This is a great post and lots of interesting comments from posters. Something new to learn today. I never want to stop learning new things.
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@Afrofem: Thanks for the information about Pinkster I want to read more about that so I am making Mr.Google my friend to read more on this subject.
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@Herneith: Thanks for suggesting this topic I know Canada has lots of history about the black people who settled there.
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@ Afrofem
“Sometimes people forget that the life conditions of Black people in America (and the Diaspora) today are the result of hundreds of years of European greed, fear and control. Decisions like words can have long lasting consequences.”
This is very true. Growing up white in the U.S., we learn to be afraid of large groups of black people without ever really understanding why, because it’s mostly something we learn from example rather than explanation. We see the adults in our lives walk into a restaurant full of black people and say to each other nervously, “On second thought, let’s go somewhere else.”
The explanations we do get usually center around the fear of crime, but on reflection that doesn’t make sense; we’re not going to be attacked in broad daylight just for being white at a McDonald’s in a black neighborhood (unfortunately the opposite scenario is more likely).
It makes more sense that this white fear of black crowds, which is still being passed down from generation to generation, has its historical roots in the fear of slave rebellions and the resultant prohibition of black gatherings. White people need to make these historical connections so we can get rid of these unreasonable and outdated fears which have such a negative impact on the lives of our black fellow citizens.
While reading Abagond’s post, I made a similar connection about literacy and education. Usually we get taught that the laws forbidding black slaves to learn to read was to keep them content and make it less likely they’d run away. Even reading the Bible was iffy, due to the stories about Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery.
But what often gets left unmentioned is that a literate slave could use those skills to organize a violent revolt like the Stono Rebellion. That was the primary motivation behind those anti-literacy laws.
This made me wonder about the so-called achievement gap today. White people wring their hands over the educational difficulties of black children and teens in poor school districts, but it often seems that’s all they do. Like they don’t really want it to improve. After reading this post, it made me wonder if that also has deep hidden roots, if there’s actually a white fear of educated blacks that goes all the way back to slavery times to the dread of what could be wrought by a slave who knew how to write passes for conspirators in a rebellion.
And then to tie this in with a previous discussion with Allan Shaw elsewhere, I think that Abagond’s historical posts are very important for white people to read. Whites need to dig into our collective history to fully understand how we as a people developed such unreasonable fears and hatreds of blacks so we can uproot the tree of racism and build a better future for all Americans.
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Very interesting. The fear of slaves not just gathering in groups but also socialising on a smaller level really shows the divide and conquer attitude of the white elite of the time. I guess it now manifests now as a generational fear of groups of black people. Perhaps for white people there is an inner nag that one day revenge could be sought and the tables turned?
@ Solitaire
What you say is very true and in Britain also. This fear is deeply ingrained into society now that sadly it is not only white people who have been taught to fear groups of black people but also other black people. Really clever manipulation. Really difficult task to eradicate when it suits so many not to change the status quo.
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@ Mary Burrell
I learned about Pinkster a few years back when I was reading about slavery in the North.
It wasn’t mentioned in the article I linked to, but many enslaved Africans in the Hudson Valley spoke Dutch as a first language and English as a second language.
So much hidden history….
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@Solitaire
“This made me wonder about the so-called achievement gap today. White people wring their hands over the educational difficulties of black children and teens in poor school districts, but it often seems that’s all they do. Like they don’t really want it to improve.”
How long would White Supremacist ideology persist in the face of an educated and independent Black population that competes with economically and socially with other American groups?
The decisions to shortchange Black students and resultant gaps are baked into the structure of the educational system.
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@ Mary Burrell
I seem to have a reply to you in moderation. If I don’t see it later, I will re-post it.
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@Afrofem: There is so much history that we don’t know about in regard to our black history.
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@ Afrofem
Didn’t Sojourner Truth speak Dutch as her first language?
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@Solitaire
Truth’s first language was Dutch.
According to Encyclopedia.com:
“Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree around 1797 on an estate owned by Dutch settlers in Ulster County, New York.”
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Sojourner_Truth.aspx
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@Solitaire: Wow, I didn’t know that about Sojouner Truth thanks for that. Learned something new.
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@ Mary Burrell
That’s what I love about Abagond’s blog — I’m always learning something new here. 🙂
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If I was a slave and they gave me a week’s break to travel miles away, I ain’t coming back. There must be more to that part of the Pinkster story.
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@Fan
“…if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his hearing towards him, without condescension, and at the same time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away.”
What drug was Cartwright using? Something very potent! LOL!
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What drug was Cartwright using? Something very potent! LOL!
Preparation ‘H’.
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I’ve found that anyone can make their own creative interpretations of Holy Bible to justify their own beliefs and objectives. It’s a tool like any other.
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what’s the source of your image? i can’t find it
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