Stono uprising
The Stono Rebellion ( English : Stono Rebellion , sometimes also Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion ) was a slave rebellion that occurred on September 9, 1739 in the area of the Stono River near Charleston in the British colony of South Carolina . The armed uprising, in which 80 slaves of African descent took part in an attempt to escape to the Spanish colony of Florida , was brutally suppressed. The Stono Riot is considered to be one of the first slave riots on the territory of what is now the United States and the largest of the colonial era.
background
The uprising was preceded by a series of events which created favorable conditions for a successful attempt to break out. The power of the slave owners was marred after a yellow fever epidemic ; there was talk of a possible war between England and Spain ; the slaves knew that many escaped slaves had found refuge in Florida, where the Spanish granted them freedom if they professed their Catholic faith.
One factor that drove the insurgent slaves to the rush may have been the Security Act of 1739 , a law that was due to come into effect on September 29th that required all white male men to carry guns on Sundays. The leader of the uprising, Jemmy, was an educated slave who was referred to as an " Angolan " which probably means that he came from the Central African Congo Empire . It must have been clear to him and other important parties involved - as the specialist literature presumes - that an attempt to break out after September 29 would have had little chance of success.
course
On September 9, 1739, under the leadership of Jemmy, 20 African slaves gathered in the Stono River area, southwest of the city of Charleston. They marched down the street, carrying a banner with the inscription "Liberty" ( freedom ) and sang these words in unison. In a shop on the Stono River Bridge they obtained weapons and killed two merchants. They raised a flag and headed south, hoping to be free in Florida. New slaves always joined them along the way; they eventually numbered 80. They burned seven plantations and killed 20 whites. The deputy governor of South Carolina, William Bull , who was traveling together with four friends on horseback, came across the group, but managed to escape and alerted other planters . These formed a group of armed men to pursue the rebellious slaves. The following day mounted militiamen encountered the 80 insurgents. During the fight to which the insurgents were defeated, 20 white and 44 African slaves were killed; the captured slaves were beheaded.
consequences
The following year there was another riot in Georgia , and a year later another slave riot took place in South Carolina.
Because of concerns about further slave riots, there was a 10-year import ban for slaves in Charleston following the Stono riot. The slave law was also tightened; in particular, the slaves were deprived of their right to education and to earn their own money.
For fear of further slave riots, militias in South Carolina were also left outside the front during the American Revolutionary War .
The Stono River Rebellion Site
The location of Hutchinson's Warehouse , where the riot began, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States, Harper Perennial, 2005, p. 76 ISBN 0-06-083865-5
- ↑ Stono River Slave Rebellion Site
See also
literature
- Dominik Nagl: No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions Legal Transfer, State Building and Governance in England, Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1630–1769. LIT, Berlin 2013, p. 490ff. ISBN 978-3-643-11817-2 . [1]
- Junius P. Rodriguez (ed.): Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion , Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2006, ISBN 0313332711 .
- Mark M. Smith, "Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt," Columbia, South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press, 2005, ISBN 1570036055 .
- Peter Wood: Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion. , New York, Norton, 1975, ISBN 0393007774 .
Web links
All specified websites are in English: