Dinner Table Daily

On September 9, 1739, one of the largest slave revolts in American colonial history broke out near the Stono River, roughly 20 miles outside of Charleston, South Carolina. A group of enslaved people armed themselves by breaking into a gun store and marched southward, killing over 20 white colonists along the way. As they traveled, more enslaved people joined their ranks, swelling the group to around 60 individuals. White colonists responded with an armed militia, and by nightfall the rebellion had been largely suppressed — about half the participants were killed and the rest fled, though most were eventually caught and put to death. It is believed the rebels were attempting to reach Spanish-controlled St. Augustine, Florida, where freedom and land had been promised to escaped slaves. In the aftermath, white colonial authorities enacted a Negro Act that imposed even stricter controls on the enslaved population.