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“Attended with Great Inconveniences”: Slave Literacy and the 1740 South Carolina Negro Act

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Birgit Brander Rasmussen
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Extract

It was early morning on Sunday, 9 September 1739. While most South Carolina settlers were preparing for church, nearly Two dozen slaves gathered near the Stono River less than twenty miles from Charlestown. After attacking a local store to secure firearms, the group moved south toward Saint Augustine, Florida, swelling in number and spreading terror along the way. The rebels killed more than twenty settlers and set numerous buildings on fire before being defeated by a colonial militia at the Edisto River the following day (Wood 306-26). This unprecedented insurrection rocked the colony to its core and brought about legislation with important implications for literacy in the colonies that became the United States.

Type
Little-Known Documents
Information
PMLA , Volume 125 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 201 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2010

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References

Works Cited

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