Slave Rebellions
The Stono Rebellion in 1739, Gabriel Prosser's conspiracy in 1800, Denmark Vesey's plot in 1822 and Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831 are the most prominent slave revolts in American history. But only the Stono Rebellion and Nat Turner's Rebellion achieved any success; white Southerners managed to derail the other planned rebellions before any attack could take place.
Many slave owners in the United States became anxious in the wake of the successful slave revolt in Santo Domingo, which turned that small island into an independent black republic by the beginning of 1804. But slaves in the American colonies (later the United States), knew that mounting a rebellion was extremely difficult.
Whites greatly outnumbered slaves. And even in states like South Carolina, where whites made up only 47 percent of the population by 1810, slaves could not take on whites armed with guns.
As the international slave trade came to an end in the United States in 1808, slave owners had to rely on a natural increase in the slave population to increase their labor force. This meant breeding slaves, and many slaves feared that their children, siblings and other relatives would suffer the consequences if they rebelled.
Wrap Up
Throughout the history of American slavery, Africans and African-Americans resisted whenever possible. The odds against slaves succeeding at a rebellion or in escaping permanently were so overwhelming that most slaves resisted the only way they could—through individual actions. But slaves also resisted the system of slavery through the formation of a distinctive culture and through their religious beliefs, which kept hope alive in the face of such severe persecution.
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