Slave rebellions carried bloody consequences. Rebels were executed and family, friends, and neighbors might be beaten and killed. In some cases, slaveholders placed the bloodied and dismembered bodies in public view to remind passersby of slavery’s awful power. Nevertheless, against terrible odds, enslaved people rebelled.
The largest slave rebellions included Stono (South Carolina, 1739), New York City (1741), Gabriel’s Rebellion (Richmond, Virginia, 1800), St John’s Parish (Louisiana, 1811), Fort Blount (Florida, 1816), Vesey’s Rebellion (Charleston, South Carolina, 1822), Nat Turner’s Rebellion (Southampton County, Virginia, 1831), Amistad Mutiny (slave ship, 1839), and the Creole Revolt (slave ship, 1841).
More on enslaved resistance in our Changing America exhibition:s.si.edu/1PSKrki
Photo: Woodcut, "Horrid Massacre in Virginia," about 1831.
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