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The word was shouted over and over – in one loud, cacophonous voice. “Liberty.” In this day and age, it was more than an idealistic slogan for the marching men. To them, it was literal. It meant freedom. Their own personal freedom.
The chain of events leading to that bloody Sunday began weeks earlier in the Lowcountry.
People today may not know it, but in 1739, there were more blacks than whites living in the South Carolina Colony. Lots more. And almost all of them were slaves, many recently imported from Africa. Their labor powered cotton and rice plantations – the source of the colony’s wealth.
Many things were happening simultaneously late that summer. Charlestonians were reeling from a deadly malaria epidemic. Rumors circulated that England (which still ruled South Carolina and its other colonies up and down the eastern seaboard) was on the verge of war with rival Spain. That was especially troubling to the Carolinians, with Spanish-controlled Florida 125 miles to the south.
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On top of all that, a mysterious Catholic priest appeared in Charleston. Whispers followed him, claiming Spain was secretly paying the father to stir up trouble. A significant number of African slaves came from the Kongo region (today’s Congo) and had converted to Catholicism a century earlier. For several years, Florida’s royal governors had tempted South Carolina’s slaves to run away to the Spanish territory where, in exchange for becoming Catholic and serving a stint in the local militia, they would receive their freedom.
It was one reason why a new colonial law was scheduled to go into effect on September 29, requiring all white males to carry guns while they attended church services. Just to be safe.
All of which conspired to keep South Carolina’s white citizens in a perpetual state of anxiety. They lived with a gnawing fear deep inside that one day, slaves might rise up and overthrow their masters.
That day arrived on Sunday the ninth of September.
A man named Jemmy (today’s Jimmy) was a Kongolese slave who had learned how to read. He met several other Kongolese natives at a branch of the Stono River outside Charleston early that morning. They headed to the Stone Bridge and broke into a locked store, killed two whites, and seized guns and gunpowder. Now armed, they headed off beating a drum, flying a banner and shouting “Liberty!” Other slaves joined them until their ranks numbered anywhere between 80 to 100.
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As they moved along, they burned houses and murdered white colonists. Yet they also spared others, such as an innkeeper who was deemed to have treated his slaves well.
Then, a single encounter changed everything. Lt. Governor William Bull and some friends were riding in the country when they encountered the rebels at around 11:00 a.m. They hurried to Charleston as fast as their horses could carry them and raised the alarm. In short order, mounted militiamen were racing to intercept the rebels.
By mid-afternoon, the insurrection was slowing down. It had covered ten miles. Some were tired; others were drunk from stolen liquor. So the party paused in an open field near the Jacksonborough ferry on the Edisto River. Jemmy apparently hoped the delay would provide time for even more slaves to join them – swelling their ranks.
Instead, the delay proved fatal to his cause.
Around 4:00 p.m., a group of militiamen and armed planters opened fire. A brief but sharp firefight ensued. When it was over, the slaves had been defeated. Thirty made it to nearby woods. It took a while, but most were captured by the following spring. One leader of the uprising eluded captors until 1742.
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Some of those who surrendered were executed, their heads placed on stakes to serve as a warning to other slaves.
When all was said and done, some 25 white colonials and around 50 slaves were dead. It was the largest – and deadliest – slave revolt in the South before the Revolutionary War.
Repercussions from the colonials were swift and severe. The assembly passed the harsh Negro Act of 1740. Among other things, it made it more difficult for slaves to receive their freedom, required militiamen to patrol the colony’s roads looking for runaway slaves, and mandated a ratio of ten blacks maximum to every white person on each plantation. It also slapped restrictions on the number of slaves brought over from Africa starting in 1741.
There was a final irony to this story. The slaves who participated in the Stono Rebellion used the very same rallying cry their white masters would use a generation later during the American Revolution.
“Liberty.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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2 comments
Great history lesson. Thanks for writing.
Well done! Thank you.