Slave Revolts in North America Before 1741

Depiction of 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina


September 1663 Gloucester County, Virginia
A planned revolt by black slaves and white indentured servants was uncovered by authorities. 
Several plotters were beheaded.

1712 New York City
Slaves armed with guns and clubs burn homes in northern New York City, killing nine whites.  Indentured servants betray the plot.  Forty-three slaves were tried in the Court of Quarter Sessions and twnty-five were sentenced to death.  Within months of the revolt, the General Assembly passed a law allowing slavemasters to punish slaves at their discretion and effectively made impossible the freeing of slaves.

1733 St. Johns (under Danish control)
Ninety African-born slaves killed a number of plantation owners and seized control of the Danish fort at Coral Bay and hold the island half a year until French and Swiss troops arrive from Martinique. 

1734-1739  Jamaica
A slave leader named Cudjoe leads a slave force that eventually leads the British to enter into a peace treaty which gave Cudjoe and his followers their freedom and 1,500 acres of their conquered territory.

1736 Antigua
Described by New York prosecutors in 1741 plot trials as "an unparalled hellish plot,"
the revolt never got off the ground.  Slaves had planned an uprising for the night of a coronation ball in St. Johns.  A gunpowder blast at the ball was intended to be the sign for slaves to rise up and kill whites,
but the plot was thwarted.  Forty-seven slaves were executed.

1739 South Carolina (Stono Rebellion)
Armed slaves, numbering over 80, attempt to march to Spanish Florida from their home area in South Carolina.  When confronted by a local militia company organizes to suppress the rebellion,
twenty-one whites and forty-four slaves die.

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