STONO: SECRECT SLAVE REBELLION OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
James R. MacKenzie
HIST 330
April 17, 2008
1
The Stono Rebellion was one of the first major slave revolts ever staged in British
North America. In the fall of 1739 some one hundred enslaved Africans living in South
2
Carolina joined together in a devastating march towards Spanish controlled Florida and
freedom. The violence of the rebellion produced the deaths of more than 60 whites and
30 enslaved Africans, as well as causing a fear and mistrust all over the British colonies.
The rebellion itself was the bloodiest and largest in the entire South Carolina colony. The
results of the rebellion also caused laws to be passed that further restricted the movement
and holding of slaves. The rebellion had far reaching consequences for all of the British
colonies that would influence the institution of slavery everywhere in what would
become the United States of America. What is so interesting about the Stono Rebellion
isn’t just its causes and aftereffects, but the fact that such a monumental event in what
would become American history was so undocumented. It wasn’t until the work of Peter
Wood, a Duke history professor in 1974 that the historical community first got a look at a
modern historical account on the subject. His work as well as the recent work of Mark
M. Smith the distinguished professor of history at the University of South Carolina,
which put together previously unknown primary sources about the Stono Rebellion and
three modern historians’ interpretations on the event, provides much of what is now
known about this historically important rebellion. The primary sources themselves range
from accounts of the condition of South Carolina just prior to the rebellion, to an actual
first hand account of the rebellion from South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor William
Bull.
The Stono Rebellion is like other slave rebellions that took place in the colonial
US in that there is no historical evidence to know what the exact cause of the rebellion
was. Stono itself has a lot of unique features to consider when looking at the causes of
the insurrection. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the causes of the
3
rebellion is the condition that slaves were experiencing in the South Carolina colony.
Another possible scenario could have been motivation from the Spanish colony of Florida
to rebel and march towards Florida as a way of gaining freedom. John K. Thorton’s
article on the Stono Rebellion looks at the possible motivation being the slaves African
origins. He says that “the South Carolina slaves were in all likelihood not drawn from
the Portuguese colony of Angola but from the kingdom of Kongo, which was a Christian
country and had a fairly extensive systems of schools and churches in addition to a high
degree of literacy (at least for the upper class in Portuguese.”1 Proving anyone of these
possible causes for the Rebellion, even today represents an impossible task, but in
looking at the events surrounding the insurrection it is important to consider its possible
motivations.
In looking into the events of the Stono Rebellion scholars must first consider what
conditions were like in South Carolina as a whole as well as from the slaves perspective.
Early race relations in South Carolina represented a colony that had a majority black
slave population and a minority white population that was concerned about the number of
slaves in their colony. Just prior to the Stono Rebellion, “a new act was passed in 1734
which established a regular patrol along lines which would be followed for the duration
of slavery. Under this statute three commissioners were appointed to supervise the patrol
in each militia district.”2 The patrol itself, “were to make the rounds of plantations within
their district at least once a month. They could question or search any traveling Negro
and they could administer up to twenty lashes to any slave stopped outside his plantation
1
Mark M. Smith, ed., Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt (Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 2005), 76.
2
Peter H. Wood, Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 Through the Stono
Rebellion (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1974), 275.
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without a ticket.”3 It is because of this law and ones similar to it that there was a general
fear felt among the entire South Carolina colony. White residents were fearful of African
slaves they enacted militia patrols, while blacks both free and enslaved were fearful of
the militia patrols and the punishments they could receive for being out at the wrong
place and time. The growing fears of white residents of South Carolina were not
unjustified however. Even prior to the Stono Rebellion of 1739 there were instances of
slave hostilities toward their condition. There were two distinct ends of the spectrum as
to what slaves in South Carolina did to rebel against their owners, at one end there is
violence and death, while others used more subtle forms of retaliation such as poisoning
or arson which were harder to trace. In Wood’s book he also explains that slaves may
have had awareness of the capabilities of the various plants around them citing that “In
West Africa, the obeah-men and others with the herbal knowledge to combat poisoning
could inflict poison as well, and use for this negative capability was not diminished by
enslavement.”4 The stage was set for a major rebellion to go off in South Carolina, the
race relation between whites and blacks were a powder keg waiting to explode.
Although there was little reported about the Rebellion at Stono in 1739 historians
have recently uncovered documents that help give greater understanding about such a
large slave rebellion. What we now know about the rebellion is that “during the early
hours of Sunday, September 9, 1739, some twenty slaves gathered near the western
branch of the Stono River in St. Paul’s Parish, within twenty miles of Charlestown.
Many of the conspirators were Angolans, and their acknowledged leader was a slave
3
4
Wood, The Black Majority, 275.
Ibid, 289.
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named Jemmy.”5 The band of slaves proceeded to the Stono Bridge and broke into
Hutchenson’s store, where small arms and gun powder were sold. “The storekeepers
Robert Bathurst and Mr. Gibb’s, were executed, and their heads left upon the front steps.
Equipped with guns, the band moved on the house of Mr. Godfrey, which they plundered
and burned, killing the owner and his son and daughter. They then turned southward
along the main road to Georgia and St. Augustine and reached Wallace’s Tavern before
dawn. The innkeeper was spared, for ‘he was a good man and kind to his slaves,’ but a
neighbor, Mr. Lemy was killed with his wife and child and his house sacked.”6 The
group continued on their path of death and destruction, killing any whites they could find
and burning their homes to the ground. It was as the group rebelling slaves continued
that more and more slaves joined their ranks, some were undoubtedly willing participants
in the rebellion, while others may have been forced into their ranks for fear of reprisal
from the armed leaders of the rebellion. After they had pillaged and marched their way
south 10 miles, the group of rebels stopped at a field. It was while they were in this field
that many of them began drinking the liquor they had stolen and began dancing and
celebrating their accomplishment. It was in this field the next morning where the group
of rebelling slaves was met by a white militia that opened fired and killed many of them,
the rest fled or gave up. The one first hand account that we have of the Stono Rebellion
happened on sheer coincidence. Lieutenant Governor Bull was returning from a trip to
Granville County when at 11:00 in the morning he and his group came upon the rebelling
slaves. In his letter he described the event saying, “on the 9th of September last at night a
great number of Negroes arose in rebellion, broke open a store where they got arms,
5
6
Smith, 63.
Ibid.
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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 a Clock in the forenoon, and fortunately discerned the approaching
danger time enough to avoid it, and to give notice to the militia who on that 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 yet remain concealed in the
woods expecting the same fate, seem desperate.”7 The obvious thing that jumps out in
this firsthand description is that the number of deaths that it accounts for differs from
what scholars believe were the actual numbers. The other thing that differs from modern
day analysis of the events of the Stono Rebellion is the belief that the initial encounter
with the militia all but ended and killed the rebelling slaves. In fact “at least thirty
Negroes (or roughly one-third of the rebel force) were known to have escaped from
Sunday’s skirmish in several groups, and their presence in the countryside provided an
invitation to wider rebellion.”8 The ensuing days after the rebellion were one of unrest
within the colony, as “the entire white colony was ordered under arms, and guards were
posted at key ferry passages.”9 White citizens of the colony were rightfully concerned
because “some of the rebels from Stono were still at large in late November 1739,”10 and
“one of the leaders of the rebellion was not captured until 1742.”11 The Stono Rebellion
7
Smith, 17.
Ibid, 65.
9
Ibid.
10
Ibid, 66.
11
Smith, xiii.
8
7
left the colony of South Carolina in a state of shock, and it was precisely this reason that
the rebellion wasn’t heavily documented at the time.
The Stono Rebellion remains one of the most undocumented historical events in
all of US history. The majority of the primary source documents relating to the Stono
Rebellion are private correspondences (letters) between various persons residing in
colonial British North America. Often the only evidence of the rebellion is a passing
mention in a letter such as the letter from Robert Pringle (a South Carolina merchant) to
John Richards (a man who he did business with in London), he says “I hope our
Government will order effectual methods for the taking of St. Augustine from the
Spaniards which is now become a great detriment to this province by the encouragement
and protection given by them to our Negroes that run away there. An insurrection has
been made of late here in the country by some Negroes in order to their going there and
in less than twenty four hours they murthered in their way there between twenty and
thirty white people and burnt several houses before they were overtaken, tho’ now most
of the gang are already taken or cut to pieces. This happened within three weeks past.”12
In looking at popular newspapers of the time there was only one mention of the rebellion
that appeared in the Boston Gazette under the title “A Letter from South Carolina”. It is
similar to other contemporary accounts of the rebellion in that it makes it seem like the
rebellion was crushed quickly and easily. The letter which was published in November
of 1739 read, “about three weeks past we had an insurrection of our negroes, who in one
night cut off about 25 whites, and then formed a considerable body, burnt about 6 houses,
and sacrificed every thing in their way. We were immediately alarmed, and under arms
and first method we took was to secure our ferries and passes by guards; and to send out a
12
Ibid, 9.
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body upon the scout, which came up with them, and engaged them. They gave two fires,
but without any damage, and we returned fire and brought down 14 on the spot, and
pursuing after them within two days killed twenty odd more, some hung, and some
gibbeted alive. A number came in and were seized and discharged; some are yet out, but
we hope will soon be taken.”13
Aside from pursing the rebels that had yet to be captured after initial engagements
South Carolina as a colony reacted in ways to try and prevent another Stono Rebellion.
The South Carolina government met shortly after the events of the rebellion and together
came up with a variety of new laws to help ensure the future security of the colony form
other slave rebellions. All of these deliberations resulted in what is generally know as the
Negro Act of 1740 which “redefined slaves as personal chattels (they had been
considered freehold property until then), regulated behavior of whites as well as blacks,
and became the legal basis of South Carolina’s slave code into the nineteenth century.
The act tried to curtail the excesses of slavery by placing restrictions on, for example,
when and how much masters could work or punish their slaves; it also limited the small
freedom formerly enjoyed by slaves.”14 Although these laws were passed to place even
more restrictions on slaves some of them were ignored in that “slaves still bought
intoxicating liquors, sold goods, and even carried guns.”15
Another interesting aspect about the Stono Rebellion is that although it was a
slave rebellion, many white colonists considered its motivations to be held within
promises made by the Spanish government in Florida for freedom. This motivation was
considered in one of the first American historical documents written by Alexander
13
Smith, 12.
Ibid, 20.
15
Ibid.
14
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Hewatt (1740 – 1824) on the Stono Rebellion. In it he says “long had liberty and
protection been promised and proclaimed to them (slaves) by the Spaniards at Augustine,
nor were all the Negroes in the province strangers to this proclamation.”16 This fear of the
Spanish government trying to lure slaves into rebellion and to run off to Florida was
realized when “two Spaniards were caught in Georgia, and committed to jail, for inciting
slaves to leave Carolina and join their regiment.”17 Although the motivations behind the
Stono Rebellion remain unknown the rebellion no doubt scared not only the colonists but
the British Government as well.
The Stono Rebellion was one of the largest and bloodiest slave rebellions in all of
colonial US history. By its conclusion some 60 white colonists were dead, 30 rebel
slaves were dead, and 10 miles of destruction lay in its wake. The rebellion had dramatic
consequences on the institution of slavery in South Carolina for decades to come. The
laws passed in the wake of the Stono Rebellion were meant to further control the growing
black slave population through greater restrictions on their already severely limited
freedoms. The importance of the Stono Rebellion is a recent phenomenon due to the fact
that many of the documents about its events were only recently uncovered by modern
historians. Despite its significance Stono remains one of the most undocumented
rebellions in US history, and its effect and importance are only just being realized by
historians.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
16
17
Smith, 33.
Ibid.
10
Smith, Mark M., ed. Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt.
Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005.
Wood, Peter H., Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina form 1670
Through the Stono Rebellion. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1974.
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