Calling Out Liberty: The Stono Slave Rebellion and the Universal Struggle for Human Rights
Calling Out Liberty: The Stono Slave Rebellion and the Universal Struggle for Human Rights
University Press of Mississippi | July 20, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1604732733 | 224 pages | PDF | 1.2 MB
University Press of Mississippi | July 20, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1604732733 | 224 pages | PDF | 1.2 MB
On Sunday, September 9, 1739, twenty Kongolese slaves armed themselves by breaking into a storehouse near the Stono River south of Charleston, South Carolina. They killed twenty-three white colonists, joined forces with other slaves, and marched toward Spanish Florida. There they expected to find freedom. One report claims the rebels were overheard shouting, "Liberty!" Before the day ended, however, the rebellion was crushed, and afterwards many surviving rebels were executed. South Carolina rapidly responded with a comprehensive slave code. The Negro Act reinforced white power through laws meant to control the ability of slaves to communicate and congregate. It was an important model for many slaveholding colonies and states, and its tenets greatly inhibited African American access to the public sphere for years to come.