Discuss The Origin And Consequences Of The Stono Revolt

Origins and Consequences of the Stono Slave Revolt
In the pages of Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt, editor Mark E. Smith amassed a significant collection of primary and secondary sources that chronicle the Stono slave rebellion that occurred outside of Charleston, South Carolina in September of 1739. Since documentation of such events at the time was limited, there was no running historical account to accurately capture the factual rationale for why the revolt occurred. By filtering through such primary interpretations and their analysis as depicted in the secondary essays, the Stono revolt’s importance is revealed. While the authors of the secondary sources do not all concur with the exact origins of the insurrection,

Whether the slaves were followers of Catholic beliefs is a factor that historians seemingly put emphasis on. Mark E. Smith, in his essay Time, Religion, Rebellion, makes the most significant arguments about the relevance of the rebel’s religious and geographical originations as contributing factors. To back this ideology up, Smith states, “Stono’s timing and religious geography expose the short-comings of an older debate on the extent to which transplanted slaves retained elements of their African culture” (Smith, 108). Importance of the date of the insurrection and the nativity of the Virgin Mary is believed to be a major contributing factor to the “why” question (Smith, 110). Some historians consider these slaves may have chosen this date as an affirmation to Catholicism and the Catholic calendar which was restrained after their forced captivity in a mostly Protestant society (Smith, 110). The religious associations could be construed as the life of a slave in the colonies with association of the persecution consistent with the faith of

The act was used to codify slaves as personal chattels (similar to the ownership of domesticated animals), whereas prior to the act’s ratification, slaves were considered freehold property (only required to provide services) (Smith, 20). The true significance of these passages written in the 1740 Negro Act was how a slave could be treated, punished, and essentially killed for any disobedience or disrespectful action. The act further defined the penalties for a slave carrying a gun or if they inflict any harm on a white person as a grievous crime (Smith, 23). The establishment of such an act also classified any insubordinate slave that has any intention of fleeing or running away to the sanctity of Spanish Florida as “evil and disobedient” (Smith, 26). Within the passages of this statute, the slightest veil of freedom that existed for slaves was terminated. Peter Wood stated this impairment of regulation “did more than any single piece of legislation…to curtail de facto personal liberties, which slaves had been able to cling to” (Smith, 68). The decrease in freedoms enacted by South Carolina would extend to other colonies as well further defining the practice and