For those still stuck with the Gone With the Wind view of American slavery, this is the anniversary of one of the largest and most violent slave insurrections in American History. It wasn’t anything like the picture Margaret Mitchell painted. The Stono Rebellion was one of hundreds of violent slave uprisings in pre-Civil War America. And the specter of black men carrying guns was one reason George Washington did not allow black recruits in the Continental Army — he knew his slave-holding fellow patriots would not tolerate the idea. This hidden history helps give the lie to the long-held notion of lazy, docile slaves and paternalistic owners.
WHEN: On September 9, 1739 –Early Sunday morning
WHERE: The Stono River, 20 miles south of Charleston, South Carolina
WHAT: The largest slave insurrection in colonial America, before the Revolution
WHO: About twenty blacks set off this day, took guns and powder from a store and killed its two owners. As they marched through the countryside, they gathered more recruits from plantations along the way. By the end of the day, more than one hundred slaves had joined the rebellion.
WHY: These rebels hoped to reach St. Augustine, Florida where they thought they would be free under Spanish rule. By the end of the day, they were caught by a small army of mounted planters who attacked the runaways and broke the Stono Rebellion. During this insurrection, approximately 20 whites and twice that number of blacks were killed.
Few things were more frightening in early America than the thought of armed slave rebellions. Contrary to the image of meek slaves and well-meaning slave owners, there were hundreds of slave uprisings in America, dating to the earliest colonial times. Just the fear of a slave insurrection threw New York City into a massive panic in 1743.
When the slaves of the future Republic of Haiti rebelled in the 1790s in a bloody war against white owners, the fears increased dramatically. Every insurrection was usually met with tougher laws and harsh punishments, including executions or beheadings, after which the heads of the rebels were set on pikes as warnings to other slaves.
You can read more about the history of slave insurrections in A NATION RISING
The Spanish in Florida encouraged American slaves to run away and even created a haven for them in Florida known as Fort Mose, now a historic landmark.
http://www.floridastateparks.org/fortmose/default.cfm
There are excellent resources on slavery at the Library of Congress:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html
