Causes And Effects Of The Cato Rebellion

On September 09, 1739 a group of twenty plus slaves travelled along the banks of the Stono River chanting the sweet words of liberty. Led by an Angolian named Jemmy, he and several other slaves organized a rebellion that would lead to the death of sixty individuals. Commonly called The Stono Rebellion or Cato’s Rebellion was the largest slave insurrection in British North America. The Stono Rebellion did not just come about; there were several characteristics that led up to the uprising. The revolt also caused a significant aftermath. The Stono Rebellion was the first largest slave revolt of this time. Cato’s Rebellion acted as a tribute to the revolts that would occur afterwards, in which the slaves would finally earn their beloved

They first arrived at a store and warehouse known to have weapons and ammunition. The slaves killed two people and took the materials to arm themselves. They then marched to a planation owners house by the name of Mr. Godfrey. They killed him and his two children and burned down his house. By dawn that day they had arrived to Mr. Wallace’s Tavern where they decided to spare the owner for his kindness to his slaves. They continued to march to six other plantations, killing the owners and recruiting more and more slaves for the rebellion. By 11am they had 50 rebels standing strong. Some slaves hid their masters to keep them safe such as the slaves of Thomas Rose. They were later rewarded after the rebellion had ended. By that afternoon, the slaves had chased and killed any whites that they had encountered. Soon word got out about the rebellion that was going on that day by Lieutenant Governor Bull. They had killed abruptly twenty to twenty five whites, burned seven plantations and marched ten miles before reaching the Edisto River before they decided to stop at a nearby field. This is where at 4pm one hundred whites surrounded the group. By dusk thirty slaves were pronounced dead, and the rest had escaped. Twenty white men were killed on the field of conflict. Over the next six months most of the slaves had been

The Stono Rebellion “was probably the most notable day when slave relations in the South changed forever”. After the events that occurred of September 9th 1739 new laws were put in place such as the Slave Codes of 1740. The Slave Codes were put in place to “protect the white citizens, control daily movement of the slaves, as well as, protect the slaves from undue brutal treatment by whites. These laws restricted movement of the slaves, in that they had to be accompanied by a white person and/or have the explicit permission of their owner to be out and about”. The new laws were put in place in hopes of keeping the slaves from conversing with one another to keep the talks of any future rebellion down. Many laws would even imprison or fine whites who did not follow the laws completely. Laws were also written about making sure that slaves did not wear “decent” clothing to ensure that they did not look like a free man. The government felt like these laws were extremely important for society to ensure that the white population felt safe. After all, the African population definitely out weighed the white population at this time. The government made every restriction possible for slaves putting them on an even tighter rein. The slaves had fought for hope of an eventual freedom with tighter reins only more rebellion would be soon to come. In the years after the Stono Rebellion had taken