The South Carolina Pre Revolutionary Stono Rebellion

” For many, the economic structure of slavery still held strong and it established status in British America. Slavery had begun in the later half of the 17th century and in many ways, it had made Atlantic commerce and overseas settlement possible. Thousands of Africans had been shipped overseas to work in the fields of staple crops. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, high concentrations of slaves remained in the southern colonies where they continued to labour on cotton and tobacco plantations. Of the thirteen colonies, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas held the highest concentrations of slaves. In 1775, it is estimated that of the 2.5 million people living in the thirteen colonies, 500,000 were blacks. The vast majority of these blacks were slaves, with many labouring for their masters under harsh conditions. Although their experiences were difficult, blacks rarely revolted or staged rebellions against their masters. This has often been associated with the plantation system, and the role it played in severing blacks’ ties to one another. As highlighted by historian Silvia Frey, “The North American plantation organization, with the dominating presence of the master, inhibited the development of the tribal cohesiveness that characterized the islands’ plantation organization and produced widespread violence against whites by black guerrilla bands.” However, despite the absence of any significant

The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and

Peter Wood’s Black Majority is a social history examining the cause and effects, both explicit and implicit, of the black majority that emerged in colonial South Carolina. His study spans the time period from the settlement of Carolina through the Stono Rebellion, which took place in 1739. He also takes into consideration and examines certain events that took place in the years immediately preceding the settlement of 1670, as well as those that immediately followed, as a direct result of, the Stono Rebellion and their respective relationships to the black majority that existed in the colony. Wood introduces the book as possibly the first real study of this black majority and its impact on the colony in its earliest years. Wood also

The Stono Rebellion was at the time the biggest slave rebellion to ever take place in the American colonies. It came at a time when owning slaves was one of the accepted things in the colonies and the colonists depended on the labor the slaves were doing. Some colonies entire economies depended on it. In South Carolina, there were more slaves than free men in the colony. This was because of the African slave trade.

     South Carolina was one of the only states in which the black slaves and abolitionists outnumbered their oppressors. Denmark Vesey’s slave revolt consisted

Beginning on September 9,1739, the Stono Rebellion was one of the largest slave uprisings in colonial America (Stono's Rebellion). It was the first known slave revolt in the continent of North America in 1739 (Slave Rebellions). Though it was one of the largest slave revolts in colonial America, it was still unsuccessful, but because it was so large, it had several effect on America and its government.

Slavery had been present in South Carolina since its founding and the white population had become exceedingly rich due to the trade. Also due to this, though, they had a significant number of African Americans in bondage, representing “59 percent of South Carolina’s populace… the highest proportion of any state” with “almost half of South Carolina’s white families [owning] slaves” (22). According to Butterfield, this created a constant fear of insurrection or slaves revolting for their freedom, making conformity top priority – requiring that it be rigorously enforced - an attitude that would continue after emancipation with such organizations as the KKK. The South Carolina whites also felt pressure from the North in the form of liberal media, such as the Liberator, that threatened their “peculiar

Looking at the social order at the time is important to understanding what is to come. While the slaves were now free and able to do as they pleased, there was still a deeply embedded racism within the minds of Southern whites. Just because blacks had fought in the Civil War did not suddenly mean that the perception of blacks had changed; rather to the Southern elites, they still viewed blacks as inferior and only good for labor, longing to perpetuate the slave system but within a new industrial framework seeing as how the agricultural framework had been destroyed. This new system was to be found in through convict leasing.

Many laws were created in an effort to ensure a white man’s position over a black man’s position. It was made illegal for an African American to insult any white man regardless of either person’s position (red). Also, slave owners were allowed to punish their slaves in any form they deemed necessary. Often they would punish a slave more harshly in order to show the rest of their slaves the repercussions for their missteps. Southerners also used race to justify the negative claims about slavery. They claimed that the white colonists were civil while the African Americans were barbaric and dangerous. When referring to African Americans, white southerners used language similar to the language used by educated Englishmen while describing the extremely poor (red). This influenced others to believe that African Americans were beneath them, which led more and more people to begin to condone slavery.

Slave revolts normally happened outside of the plantation system and in large cities were the slaves were able to act more freely. It’s estimated there were at least 250 slave rebellions in America before slavery was abolished in 1865.Most tales of what happened during those rebellions could be bias seen as they were written by whites rather than by the slaves that started the revolt. Since African American slaves accounted for more than one-third of the population in the 18th century, slave rebellions were a large source of fear for white Americans in the south.

As a result of being outnumbered, slave owners feared rebellions which would remove them from their position of power. This fear is largely to blame for the especially hard conditions for slaves in the colony of Saint Domingue. On the majority of plantations for example slaves were forbidden to meet with other slaves, and harsh overseers were employed to make sure that the slaves cooperated.

For the first part of this paper, I will look at the riots that transpired

When we consider the social and technological reasons for the uprising we also have to start thinking about where the uprising started and its significance to the geographical locations of the countries that were affected. When

One may believe an African rebellion would be inevitable, after decades of oppression and ill-treatment from their white oppressors and it was. Africans grew tired of individual and institutional racism. A small group of Africans organized a revolt in 1712 resulting in the death of about ten whites. This act of deviance struck fear in the eyes of many white civilians and brought confidence to the hearts of many slaves. A picture of a church was on display and in writing it stated, “After an attempted revolt by Africans in 1712, white New Yorkers fear uprising and pass restrictive laws. Later news of rebellions elsewhere inspires some enslaved New Yorker and terrifies their owners.” Rebellions became more frequent and as a result, strict laws

The trafficking of slaves in South Carolina was huge, which created a society based on bondage. The vast force needed to run such a society was a major contributor to violence in the South. Slaves were treated brutally, for example the standard number of lashes for a whipping was thirty-nine, which was based on an old biblical injunction, but some masters whipped their slaves more severely or