uprising, it proposed “that the sd Indians be severally rewarded with a
Coat, a Flap, a Hat, a pair of Indian Stockings, a Gun, 2 Pounds of Powder
& 8 Pounds of Bullets.” When runaways were caught and killed, cooperat-
ing Indians were to receive 20 pounds “for every scalp of a grown negro
slave, with the two ears.” This early alliance with Indian groups, notably
the Catawba and the Chickasaws in the Carolinas, was later extended and
used all along the frontier to pursue runaway blacks.
Blacks did not always run away. In a few instances—surprisingly few,
and sometimes tragic—they endeavored to strike back at their oppressors.
The most famous example in colonial America was an uprising in Stono,
South Carolina, on September 9, 1739. In comparison with the slave
revolts in the Roman Empire, which involved thousands of people, Stono
was on a very small scale, initially just twenty men; but it terrified the own-
ers of the rice plantations.
At Stono, on a Sunday, when plantation owners gave the blacks time to
tend their kitchen gardens, a group identified as being from Angola broke
into a warehouse containing muskets, powder, and bullets. There they
killed two white men who were presumably guarding the building. Then,
armed, they broke into the houses of families they identified as being par-
ticularly cruel to slaves and killed the inhabitants. The slaves obviously
were evaluating the actions of the whites, because they spared at least one
white tavern owner whom they regarded as a kind man. Making no attempt
to run away or even to conceal themselves, and “calling out Liberty,” they
“marched on with Colours displayed, and two Drums beating.” As they
proceeded, a few more blacks, perhaps as many as forty or fifty, joined
them. But after they had gone about 10 miles, apparently without any clear
objective, they were overtaken by a number of planters and by the local
militia. Practically all of the rebels were immediately killed. When the short,
bloody foray ended, the casualties were said to be about forty blacks and
twenty whites.
For most blacks before the Revolution, life was governed ultimately by
statutes passed by the colonial legislatures and administered by the courts
and local sheriffs. How to regulate the growing number of existing slaves
and new arrivals was not a major issue until nearly the last quarter of the
180 THE BIRTH OF AMERICA