Report from William Bull, Royal Governor of Carolina
To: Royal Council
Re. Stono Rebellion
My Lords,
I beg leave to lay before your Lordships an account of our Affairs, first in regard to the
Desertion of our Negroes. . . . On the 9th of September last at Night a great Number of
Negroes Arose in Rebellion, broke open a Store where they got arms, killed twenty one
White Persons, and were marching the next morning in a Daring manner out of the
Province, killing all they met and burning several Houses as they passed along the Road. I
was returning from Granville County with four Gentlemen and met these Rebels at eleven
o'clock in the forenoon and fortunately deserned the approaching danger time enough to
avoid it, and to give notice to the Militia who on the Occasion behaved with so much
expedition and bravery, as by four a'Clock the same day to come up with them and killed
and took so many as put a stop to any further mischief at that time, forty four of them have
been killed and Executed; some few yet remain concealed in the Woods expecting the
same fate, seem desperate. . . .
It was the Opinion of His Majesty's Council with several other Gentlemen that one of the
most effectual means that could be used at present to prevent such desertion of our Negroes
is to encourage some Indians by a suitable reward to pursue and if possible to bring back
the Deserters, and while the Indians are thus employed they would be in the way ready to
intercept others that might attempt to follow and I have sent for the Chiefs of the
Chickasaws living at New Windsor and the Catawbaw Indians for that purpose. . . .
My Lords,
Your Lordships Most Obedient and Most Humble Servant
Wm Bull
CO 5/388
UK Crown copyright: Public Record Office
THE STONO REBELLION
Charleston, SC 1739
The Stono Rebellion was the largest rebellion mounted by slaves against slave owners in
colonial America. The Stono Rebellion's location was near the Stono River in South Carolina.
The details of the 1739 event are uncertain, as documentation for the incident comes from
only one firsthand report and several secondhand reports. White Carolinians wrote these
records, and historians have had to reconstruct the causes of the Stono River Rebellion and
the motives of the slaves participating from these biased descriptions.
The Rebellion
On September 9, 1739, early on a Sunday morning, a group of around 20 slaves
rendezvoused at a spot near the Stono River. They had pre-planned their rebellion for this
day. Stopping first at a firearms shop, they killed the owner and supplied themselves with
guns.
Now well-armed, the group then proceeded to marched down a main road in St. Paul's
Parish, located nearly 20 miles from Charlestown (today Charleston). Bearing signs reading
"Liberty," beating drums and singing, the group was headed south for Florida. Who was
leading the group is unclear; it might have been a slave named Cato or Jemmy.
The band of rebels hit a series of businesses and homes, recruiting more slaves and killing
the masters and their families. They burned the houses as they went. The original rebels
may have forced some of their recruits to join the rebellion. The men allowed the innkeeper
at Wallace's Tavern to live because he was known to treat his slaves with more kindness
than other slaveholders.
The End of the Rebellion
After journeying around 10 miles, the group, around 60 to 100 strong, rested, and the
militia found them. A firefight ensued, and some of the rebels escaped. The militia rounded
up the escapees, decapitating them and setting their heads on posts as a lesson to other
slaves. The tally of the dead was 21 whites and 44 slaves killed. South Carolinians spared
the lives of slaves who they believed were forced to participate against their will by the
original band of rebels.
Causes
The rebelling slaves were headed for Florida. Great Britain and Spain were at war (the War
of Jenkin's Ear), and Spain, hoping to cause problems for Britain, promised freedom and
land to any British colonial slaves who made their way to Florida. The slaves themselves
were from an area of Africa, either Angola or the Kongo, that was Catholic and Portuguesespeaking. The offer from Catholic Spain might have been more attractive to the escaping
slaves as a result.
Reports in local newspapers of impending legislation may have also prompted the rebellion.
South Carolinians were contemplating passing the Security Act, which would have required
all white men to take their firearms with them to church on Sunday, presumably in case
unrest among a group of slaves broke out. Sunday had been traditionally a day when the
slave owners set aside their weapons for church attendance and allowed their slaves to
work for themselves.
The Negro Act
The rebels fought well, which, as historian John K. Thornton speculates, may have been
because they had a military background in their homeland. The areas of Africa where they
had been sold into slavery were experiencing intense civil wars, and a number of exsoldiers found themselves enslaved after surrendering to their enemies.
South Carolinians thought it was possible that their African origins had contributed to the
rebellion. Part of the 1740 Negro Act, passed in response to the rebellion, was a prohibition
on importing slaves directly from Africa. South Carolina also wanted to slow the rate of
importation down; African Americans outnumbered whites in South Carolina, and South
Carolinians lived in fear of insurrection.
The Negro Act also made it mandatory for militias to regularly patrol, to prevent slaves
from gathering the way they had in anticipation of the Stono Rebellion. Slave owners who
treated their slaves too harshly were subject to fines under the Negro Act, in an implicit nod
to the idea that harsh treatment might contribute to rebellion.
The Negro Act severely restricted the lives of South Carolina's slaves. No longer could a
group of slaves assemble on their own, nor could slaves grow their own food, learn to read
or work for money. Some of these provisions had existed in law before but had not been
consistently enforced.
Significance of the Stono Rebellion
Students often ask, "Why didn't slaves fight back?" The answer is that they sometimes did.
In his book American Negro Slave Revolts (1943), historian Herbert Aptheker estimates
that over 250 slave rebellions occurred in the United States between 1619 and 1865. Some
of these insurrections were as terrifying for slave owners as Stono, such as the Gabriel
Prosser Slave Revolt in 1800, Vesey's Rebellion in 1822 and Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831.
When slaves were unable to rebel directly, they performed subtle acts of resistance, ranging
from work slow-downs to feigning illness. The Stono River Rebellion is tribute to the
ongoing, determined resistance of African Americans to the oppressive system of slavery.
Sources
Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts. 50th Anniversary Edition. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1993.
Smith, Mark Michael. Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt. Columbia, SC: University
of South Carolina Press, 2005.
Thornton, John K. "African Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion." In A Question of Manhood: A Reader in U.S.
Black Men's History and Masculinity, vol. 1. Ed. Darlene Clark Hine and Earnestine Jenkins. Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press, 1999.