The Stono Rebellion

Sunday, September 9th, 1739 was a pivotal day in history in the climb towards freedom for enslaved African Americans. On this day, what became known as the Stono Rebellion, was led by Jemmy, an Angolan literate slave. He was most likely owned by the Cato family, who lived just north of the Stono River, so he was also known as Cato. 20 other enslaved Africans congregated and made a plan to go to Spanish Florida where they sought the freedom offered in Saint Augustine for slaves who managed to successfully escape the British colonies. But escape for slaves was no easy feat, and the Stono Rebellion was no exception. The rebels chanted “Liberty!” and recruited more slaves as they went along.
They raided a shop to acquire arms and ammunition, killing
One effect of this law was that legislative approval was required for manumission. This meant that many less manumissions were put into action, as they were already scarce and difficult to achieve before this act. They also closed ports off because they believed the rebellion was due to the slaves being born elsewhere. Slaves were no longer allowed to earn money, achieve literacy, or grow their own food. The only really positive benefit of this law was that slaveholders were finally being held accountable for how they treated their slaves, and fines were supposedly given for abusing and overworking slaves. But this rule was obviously ignored for the most part, as the brutal mistreatment of slaves over the course of their long enslavement period is well-documented.
Gabriel’s assault was planned for August 30, 1800, but was never actually carried out. Whites were warned in advance of the coming rebellion and caused it to be shut down. Gabriel’s rebellion had similar origins to the Stono Rebellion, as Gabriel was also a literal slave. Gabriel possessed blacksmith skills, so he had more freedom than other enslaved people on the plantation. This enabled him to try to set the rebellion into motion. His goal was to make Virginia more democratic, and expected to have around 1,000 enslaved join the rebellion. No whites were killed but Gabriel, and 26 other black people, were
Worshippers still met in secret, however. Charleston also passed the Seamen's Act of 1822, which basically prevented free blacks from coming in the city and interacting with/influencing enslaved people’s behaviors.
Nat Turner’s slave rebellion took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in the August of 1831. It was the bloodiest rebellions thus far, resulting in 55 to 65 white casualties in just a couple of days. Ending on August 23, this revolt was very different from the Haitian Revolution in the fact that it was short-lasting and contained, versus long-lasting and widespread, respectively. After the rebellion, 56 slaves suspected of being a part of the uprising were executed to prevent a future act of “disobedience.” A total of around 200 black people were killed as a result of the rebellion’s chaos.
Like most of the previous revolters, Southampton county native Nat Turner was literate and religious. He was known as a bit of a gifted prophet and had a charm that helped him get along with white