|
|
|
Resistance to the State
"A Late Dangerous Conspiracy"
Resistance
to the State Documents | Gabriel's
Conspiracy | Nat
Turner's Rebellion
John
Brown's Raid | Remembering
Revolt
| All
Death or Liberty Documents
|
Insurrections
were not unknown in America before the Revolution. A 1739 slave
uprising near Charleston, South Carolina, known as "Cato's
Conspiracy" or the "Stono Rebellion," culminated in
the deaths of 30 whites and 44 blacks. Reports of a "Great
Negro Plot" in New York, based on the sensational testimony of
a white indentured servant, led to the convictions of more than 100
African Americans in 1741. In Virginia, African Americans joined
with white servants as early as 1663 to rebel and gain their
freedom. By the early eighteenth century, however, Virginia's
decisive turn toward slavery made revolt a largely black versus
white issue. Enslaved African Americans posed a constant threat to
the security of their white owners, particularly in times of war.
"The Villany of the Negroes in any Emergency of Gov't is [what]
I always feared," Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie declared
in 1755 as French and Indian troops fought British colonial forces
in Virginia. Isolated insurrections and reports of conspiracies kept
white authorities on edge throughout British colonial America. By
the early 1800s slave resistance took many forms, with open and
organized revolt by large groups of slaves only the most extreme
example. Some individual slaves attempted to "steal" their
own labor by feigning illness, shirking work, or running away. Some
engaged in the deliberate destruction of property, perhaps breaking
an expensive tool or setting a barn on fire. Some went so far as to
plot the deaths of their owners; poisonings at the hands of trusted
house servants were widely suspected, but rarely proved. Even
learning to read, which was prohibited by law, was an act of
resistance. While open rebellion was rare, the threat was real to
white southerners and Virginians. Scarcely a year passed without
rumors of a plot to stage an insurrection. The papers of Virginia's
governors contain constant pleas from Virginia militia units for
weapons to respond to threats of rebellion. |
|