Preferred Name
William Stanley
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Date of Graduation
5-8-2020
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of History
Second Advisor
David Owusu-Ansah
Third Advisor
William Van Norman
Abstract
The Stono Rebellion was a rebellion of enslaved people outside of Charleston, South Carolina, that occurred in early September 1739. Exploring the event and its surrounding context helps historians to understand how the rebellion was the result of political institution and exploitative social practices. This work is a history of colonial South Carolina through the rebellion, asking questions of what led to the rebellion, how the rebellion fit into the broader history of resistance, and what events compounded the rebellion in the historical record. Chapter one is a survey of the origins of South Carolina, and the development of its slave codes. This chapter serves to illustrate the foundation of colonial slave society. Chapter two chronicles the early events of the rebellion, including an exploration of the plantation setting. Chapter three details the end of the rebellion and its suppression. Additionally, this chapter looks at how the colonial government responded to the event, and how it became wrapped up in the political dynamics of the era. This work serves as an effort to survey enslaved communities and culture, and explore how they acted as agents of change in the colonial context.
