American Biography

Slave rebellions were an important aspect of slavery from the arrival of the first Africans in America in the 1600s.

One such rebellion occurred in 1739, along the Stono River in South Carolina . There, a slave named Jemmy organized a rebellion against plantation owners. Jemmy and the other slaves hoped to arm themselves and go to Florida to gain their freedom (slaves believed that moving to the Spanish-controlled Florida territory would give them freedom from their English plantation owners). The group of twenty slaves that started the rebellion grew into a group of a few hundred as they moved southward from the Stono River . They stopped along the way to fight against plantation owners and government officials.

Though a militia of plantation owners eventually defeated the uprising and kept the rebels from getting their freedom, the Stono rebellion showed that slaves would actively seek their freedom and would organize in groups to achieve their goals.

This abolitionist text from the 1860s describes various slave rebellions in the 1730s, including the one along the Stono River . The text shows that slave rebellions were quite common, and that even though they were often unsuccessful, they were an important part of the slave experience.

After identifying Jemmy as the leader of the Stono rebellion, the South Carolina authorities tried to increase their control over slavery. Because Jemmy was born in Africa , slaveowners believed they needed American-born African slaves. This led them to ban the slave trade from Africa for a short time in the mid-18 th century.

However, the plantation economy depended so much on slaves that the slave trade soon resumed throughout South Carolina and the United States . This newspaper advertisement from the 1780s announces the arrival of a new shipment of enslaved Africans into South Carolina .

As slavery continued, so did rebellions against it. Though the slave rebellions from the 1600s and 1700s failed to end slavery in America , they did inspire future generations to continue the struggle for freedom. As shown in this image, slave-led uprisings continued throughout the 1800s and were frequently exaggerated in the press. Slaveowners responded strongly to attempts at rebellion, giving out extreme forms of punishment and often executing rebellious slaves.