FREE ESSAY ON AFRICAN DIMENSIONS OF THE STONO REBELLION

AFRICAN DIMENSIONS OF THE STONO REBELLION

African Dimensions of the Stono Rebellion
When studying the Stono Rebellion of 1739, historians only had one eyewitness report of
this. I think the reason they didn't document it very well was because the Southerners
were so outnumbered by the slaves, they didn't want the other slaves to get ideas of
rebellion. The historians also failed to look at the big picture. What they were in
Africa. This played a big role in the Stono Rebellion.
To understand the full role of Africa, one has to look at the kingdom of Kongo between
1680 and 1740 rather than just a broad overview of the African culture. This is due to
the diversity of the African's language and culture. 
Part of this uprising is due to the Spanish Roman Catholic Jesuits. Their job was to
convince people to convert back to Catholicism, using violence when necessary. The
Jesuits told these "Angolan" slaves to runaway and then they would have freedom. These
slaves probably did what they said because that was their religion. The slaves were from
a Portuguese Colony and spoke Portuguese. This language is very close to Spanish. The
Spanish most likely told the slaves this so it would weaken the English settlements,
maybe the Spanish could have taken over, but we'll never really know.
On the slave trade, one town was almost always on their trip down the West Coast of
Africa. This town was Kabinda. They got their slaves mainly from the kingdom of Kongo.
There was a lot going on in this region. A lot of civil wars were happening and the
defeated were sold as slaves. Because they had wars all of the time; these people were
very well trained for war. These people were very proud of their catholic religion. In
this Portuguese region, they had very nice schools and churches.
When these Angolan slaves got to South Carolina, they must have been outraged. Here these
well-educated, very well trained people were slaves now for ignorant farmers. They also
had their religious leaders (Jesuits) telling them to run away. They were mistreated on
their farm. And since they were fighters, that's exactly what they did fight.
Their African decent was overlooked for years, but I feel it was more important than the
mistreatment on the farm. If they would've won, we could be speaking Spanish or be an all
black country like Haiti.