Introduction
In 1739 a slave revolt took place in South Carolina. It is referred to as the Stono Rebellion or the Catos Rebellion. It is not clear what actually triggered the rebellion by the slaves in South Carolina. On the fateful day of 29 September 1739, the slaves in South Carolina took on banners bearing the name liberty and started marching along the streets chanting songs that demanded their freedom. They did so while heading to Florida where the slaves received fair treatment. Historically, that was the largest recorded uprising to have been organized by slaves in all the British colonies. The slaves are said to have been Africans who originated from Kongo and were Catholics by religion (Campbell 119). The leader of the slaves was known as Cato hence the Cato rebellion and sometimes called Jemmy was the only one among the slaves who could read and write. He was born in Cater’s household, which lived in the northern direction along the Stono River hence the name Stono Revolt. This research will focus on the events that took place on a fateful day, the possible causes of the revolt and the outcome.
Events of the Day
On that day, Jemmy and his men set out, as it was an important religious day. The militia would think it was their usual celebrations, which required them to march along streets (Hoffer 132). On this day, they however did not take the normal practices but carried a banner with the name liberty and killed the white people they would find on their way. I do think that at this point they wanted to pass a clear message of their rebellion.
They killed around 25 whites on their way to Spanish Florida that had refugee camps for freeing slaves. When Bull a governor in South Carolina together with his friends were horse riding, they happened to come across them and reported this to the government officials and all slave owners. The governments of South Carolina sent its military. In the process of conflict around 44 slaves were killed and others managed to run away; the slaves further killed 20 white people. The leaders were executed along the busy streets. This was done to ensure that the other slaves felt threatened and would not consider revolt as an option to their problems (Olwell 98).
Causes and Motivation to Revolt
The revolt was caused by various factors, which the slaves felt needed to be addressed so that they would have their freedom too. Most of the people who occupied South Carolina were slaves who were being brought from the West Indies and others were from African countries (Wood 248). They heard those who happened to move to Florida, which was controlled by the Spanish government, had full freedom. The Spanish government had promised through a statement that any other slave was free to move in Florida and would be housed and protected. They were therefore hopeful that just as the government of Spanish that was freeing all the Slaves, South Carolina too would see the need to realize their pains and hopes (Thornton 48).
The government of South Carolina demanded that the slaves were not met as a group for they feared that they may decide to overthrow them, again they were not to form any form of movement or even go to school. All this was found in the Negro Act of 1740 (Thornton 536). After careful scrutiny of Negro Act of 1740, I do think that it came clear to slaves that they would have no way of ever living a free life at all.
The Act also motivated the Slaves as they felt that the requirements of suspending the importation of slaves should be enacted. The Act stated that the slaveholders should not exploit slaves through harsh treatment, which they still did. Although the Act provided for those demands, the slaves did not see any change hence they decided to push for it (Genovese 39).
This was made easier as they took advantage of the Malaria epidemic that took away most of their masters. The government’s attention was diverted to curbing the epidemic and little attention was given to the slaves. This was an advantage to the slaves, as one master had to be a master of a large group of slaves, which was difficult on the side of the masters and would ease the escaping of the slaves (DeCaro Jr 479). The other factor was the introduction of a policy where the guards were required to carry their guns even to the church but, which had not been implemented. Those who would fail to carry were to be penalized but the policy was to take place from the September 29 of 1739 (Borick 342). I do recognize the brilliance of the slaves when they choose to revolt just before this policy was implemented. They knew it would be easy as the whites would be unarmed and it would definitely take time before they got organized.
Having come from Kongo, they were used to the Portuguese language, which was widely used in their homeland as a trade language. This was a further advantage to them as the Spanish were able to communicate with them and alert them of the happenings in North Carolina and the chances of gaining freedom, which they were interested in (Edgar 257). Kongo was a place where conflicts were common phenomena. This could help us to understand the ability of the slaves to scheme their plot properly and manage to kill 20 of the white people (Coker 79). There are possibilities that the slaves especially the group that was led by Jemmy, would have been trained Solders hence the militia skills. They would have wanted to escape from South Carolina to Florida, which also identified with the Catholic Religion that they believed in. This would facilitate their understanding because they had a common background.
Their Catholic religion pretended to have high value for women by celebrating virginity and nativity of Mary, which means they expected their women to have the same character. However, this did not happen because the white men would sexually abuse the women leaving them with mixed-race children. The slaves wanted to have protection for the women against sexual abuses (Shuler 137). I do think that the slaves felt that they too had the right to love and the whites should have respect for slave women.
The Stono revolt is recorded to be the greatest uprising to have happened although it was short-lived. As we get further revelations of the events, I do realize that despite its greatness, the slaves did not achieve their set objectives. Consequently, they did not get to Florida, where according to slaves, they would have their freedom. In addition to that, the government of South Carolina tightened the restrictive policies, which meant further suffering for the slaves. We are therefore inclined to think that the revolt although great, was not successful (Ball 231). I would rather point the failure to the unwillingness of many slaves to participate, which could be because of fear or generally hopelessness.
Measures Taken By the Whites
After the Stono revolt, the government enforced several policies to ease the work of controlling them; first, they implemented the policy to suspend slave importation from Africa for 10 years. They wanted those slaves born in South Carolina and had no African influence (Ball 230). When they did open it again, it is said they avoided Kongo-Angolan and were very particular to importing fewer numbers. Control measures were also tightened up to forbid slaves from doing things that would enable them to develop such as the cultivation of their lands, education, and employment among others (Bull 212). The whites and Africans were not allowed to mix and this reduced mixed race by a significant number although it was still happening when the whites sexually abused the enslaved women.
Conclusion
The major cause of the uprising is not clear, however, based on the various views by other writers I do think that time had come for the slave to get their freedom. Looking at how they managed to gather together and overcome the fear of being attacked by the whites, I do say that they were well organized and courageous. The slaves had learned that actually, they could do everything the white was doing and even perfume better than the whites. To me, that awareness led to the belief that perhaps they will be listened to when they move and join other slaves in Florida. The slaves felt the need to fight for their rights and favored by the prevailing situations they were able to make history by organizing and carrying out the greatest revolt by slaves in history. The repercussions were that the government tightened policies that would restrict the slaves and ease the work of controlling them.
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