Stono Rebellion

Stono Rebellion
Part of the Slave Revolts in North America
Date	September 9, 1739
Location	South Carolina Lowcountry
Goals	Escape to Spanish Florida
Resulted in	Suppression, execution of the rebels
Parties
Escaped slaves South Carolina militia
Lead figures
Jemmy Cato  William Bull
Number
Around 80 at their height Less than 100
Casualties and losses
35 to 50 killed in battle, more executed Around 20 killed in battle, more than 20 executed by escaped slaves during the revolt

The Stono Rebellion (also known as Cato's Conspiracy or Cato's Rebellion) was a slave revolt that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave rebellion in the Southern Colonial era, with 25 colonists and 35 to 50 African slaves killed.^[1][2] The uprising's leaders were likely from the Central African Kingdom of Kongo, as they were Catholic and some spoke Portuguese.

The leader of the rebellion, Jemmy, was a literate enslaved man. In some reports, however, he is referred to as "Cato", and likely was held by the Cato (or Cater) family, who lived near the Ashley River and north of the Stono River. He led 20 other enslaved Kongolese, who may have been former soldiers, in an armed march south from the Stono River. They were bound for Spanish Florida, where successive proclamations had promised freedom for fugitive slaves from British North America.^[3]

Jemmy and his group recruited nearly 60 other slaves and killed more than 20 whites before being intercepted and defeated by the South Carolina militia near the Edisto River. Survivors traveled another 30 miles (50 km) before the militia finally defeated them a week later. Most of the captured slaves were executed; the surviving few were sold to markets in the West Indies. In response to the rebellion, the General Assembly passed the Negro Act of 1740, which restricted slaves' freedoms and placed a moratorium on importing new slaves.