Colonial History: The Stono Rebellion

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Nearly all of American colonial history is shown through a white male lens, which makes it difficult to decipher the true importance of specific events such as the Stono rebellion. Although the rebellion is seen through a narrow perspective, the subsequent actions and consequent legislation provided a much broader scope of the events and their larger impact on society. The political action taken by the South Carolina State Legislature after the Stono Rebellion established a template for how southern states would handle uprisings for the next century. The Stono Rebellion was one of the earliest and largest colonial slave uprisings recorded. It occurred in Charlestown, South Carolina in the fall of 1739 and is known as a “turning point in the …show more content…
Sparked by the news of increased tensions between England and Spain, he led a group of about twenty slaves towards a local weapons shop one Sunday morning during the time when most whites were in church. Cato’s ultimate goal was to take the group 150 miles, from Stono to the Spanish Florida line. The group killed the store’s owners, leaving their heads on the front steps and continued to proceed southward, pillaging almost everything in their wake and recruiting slaves as they progressed. The group quickly grew to be about 100 slaves strong. After about ten miles they decided to rest, which was their downfall. Instead of crossing the river before resting they decided to remain stationary so that other slaves could flee and join their force. By evening, a local militia, accompanied by a group of white planters surrounded the slaves in a field, now know as “The Battlefield” and killed nearly all of them. Those who escaped were shot, but those who whites believed were “forced to join the rebellion” faced no consequences. The Stono Rebellion shook South Carolina to its core and for months after the rebellion was officially suppressed the state was still in a frenzy. However, the colonial government understood the message that the Stono rebellion intended to send. As the South Carolina Commons House reported, “On this occasion every breast was filled with concern. Evil brought home to us within our very doors awakened the …show more content…
The legislation passed after the rebellion is the reason that with more than a million slaves in the United States throughout much of the 1700s and 1800s, there were so few noteworthy uprisings. Even well known rebellions today (like Nat Turner or Stono) were quickly suppressed with relatively small death tolls. The South Carolina legislature managed to create a formula that was effective in appeasing both blacks and whites. Ultimately, the events and aftermath of the rebellion kept slavery alive for longer than it may have been
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