The Stono Rebellion: The Kingdom Of The Kongo Rebellion

The Stono Rebellion was the largest slave revolt to take place in the colonies. About 20 whites and 40 slaves were killed, after about 100 slaves decided to run away to St. Augustine to acquire freedom. The Spanish in St.Augustine had offered freedom to any slave that came to them, and the slaves were also free to follow their own religion there. The promise of freedom was not the only reason why the slaves wanted to escape from British rule. A boom in the production of rice had caused for the amount of slaves in South Carolina to increase drastically. Men were put on rice fields to work, which caused conflict. The background of the slaves also held a great deal of importance. The slaves knew how to fight, which would be a problem

These different ideas that the people had also contributed to the Stono Rebellion. The men in the fields did not like that they were put into the fields to cultivate crops. Duarte Lopes, a Portuguese Chronicler who was in the Kingdom of Kongo in the sixteenth century, substantiates that men were treated far more differently in the Kingdom of Kongo. Lopes illustrates in his writings that “when the Portuguese arrived on the coast, the Kingdom of Kongo was powerful and expansionist”. Men who came from the Kongo believed that they were much more than slaves who planted rice in the fields. This masculinity had come from the way the men in the Kongo had been treated. Men were soldiers in the Kingdom of Kongo. The image of the Dutch ambassadors bowing to Don Alvarez- the King of Kongo- shows Kongolese men at the side carrying arms. This implies that the Kongolese men must have also had experience in fighting. The slaves in the revolt had swiftly taken guns and gunpowder, and killed everyone who was in the way of the their freedom. Their ability to fight so valiantly hints that they were soldiers in a previous war that had taken place before they had come to South Carolina. The Kongolese men had fought before when the Portuguese had arrived in the Kongo which was why

The slaves in South Carolina wanted to follow their own religion, which was Christianity, and the Spanish had offered freedom to any slave who came St. Augustine which included the freedom of religion. The “Account of the Negroe Insurrection in South Carolina” (Document 6) tells us that “Sometime since there was a Proclamation published at Augustine, in which the King of Spain promised Protection and Freedom to all Negroes Slaves that would resort thither.” The slaves would try to escape from South Carolina and go to St. Augustine. The King of Kongo, Don Alvarez, had converted the Kongolese to Christianity. Don Alvarez was not interested in Christianity itself, but the power that came with it. When the slaves were brought to South Carolina, they did not submit to the religion of the Europeans. The slaves wanted to follow their own religion, so the proposal that the Spanish made was pleasing to them. The slaves wanted their people to worship as they liked, so they wanted to flee to St. Augustine. The slaves decided to revolt for the betterment of everyone in the future. The slave revolt leaders’ great great grandson depicts that “Cato take a darin’ chance to losin’ his life, not so much for his own benefit as it was to help others”. The slave revolt happened so that people in the future did not have to suffer like they were at the moment. The Stono Rebellion