The Stono Rebellion

On Sunday, September 9, 1739, about twenty enslaved Africans gathered near the Stono River, some twenty miles from Charleston, South Carolina. The colonial record names one leader: Jemmy, called their captain. Most of the rebels came from the Kongo region of Central Africa; historians believe some had been soldiers there. The group broke into Hutchinson's store, killed the two storekeepers, took guns and powder, and turned south toward Spanish Florida, where the Spanish crown had promised freedom to escaped British slaves and where free Black people had built the fortified town of Mose the year before. They marched behind two drums. A contemporary account describes the column moving "with Colours displayed, and two Drums beating," the marchers "calling out Liberty." When they halted in a field, they "set to dancing, Singing and beating Drums, to draw more Negroes to them." The drums were a summons, carrying the call to join farther than any voice could reach. The company grew to sixty or more, some said a hundred, killing white colonists and burning houses along the ten-mile march. Lieutenant Governor William Bull crossed their path on the road, escaped, and raised the alarm. That afternoon armed planters caught the marchers in a field near the Jacksonborough ferry and broke the column. Bull reported twenty-one whites and forty-four rebels killed or executed. Planters shot captives where they stood. Militia hunted survivors for weeks; one leader stayed free until 1742. It was the largest uprising of enslaved people in Britain's mainland American colonies. Within eight months, South Carolina answered with the Negro Act of 1740, banning the drums that had called the rebellion together.