The Other Charleston Slave Revolt
The One That Doesn’t Get Talked About Much
A friend of mine saw this cover photo, which I used for another story about the first slave codes in America, and asked for additional information on the Stono Rebellion. I realized I’d never written extensively about Stono, only a paragraph here or there when describing multiple slave revolts and rebellions in North America. I sent him information about Stono and promised I’d write about it myself soon. Soon has arrived.
The Stono Rebellion began about 20 miles Southwest of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1739. This was before the American Revolution, and the area was still part of a British Colony. Britain was fighting Spain in the Caribbean in the War of Jenkins' Ear. The name derives from Robert Jenkins, a British sea captain whose ear was allegedly severed in April 1731 by Spanish coast guards searching his ship for contraband. In 1738, opposition politicians in the British Parliament used the incident to incite support for a war against Spain. Spain and Britai…
