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"S" is for Stono Rebellion (September 1739)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"S" is for Stono Rebellion (September 1739). The Stono Rebellion was a violent, albeit it failed, attempt of as many as one hundred slaves to reach St. Augustine and claim freedom in Spanish-controlled Florida. The uprising was South Carolina’s largest and bloodiest slave insurrection. The rebellion began when conspirators broke into a store at Stono Bridge and equipped themselves with guns and powder. Lieutenant Governor William Bull encountered the insurgents and fled to raise the alarm. Confident in their numbers, the rebels paused in a field near Jacksonborough. Armed militia attacked them and in the ensuing battle, some rebels were killed, others were shot, and some were decapitated and their heads set on posts. The Stono Rebellion resulted in the passage of the Negro Act of 1740 that curtailed the activities of slaves and free blacks in South Carolina.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.