Only a few organized revolts, in which the enslaved threatened white lives and property, ever actually took place. In early 1741, Fort George in New York burned to the ground. But what distinguished him more than his physical bearing was his ability to read and write: Only 5 percent of Southern slaves were literate. Let’s consider the five greatest slave rebellions in the United States, about which Donald Yacovone and I write in the forthcoming companion book to my new PBS series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. Slave Rebellions. Several white people claimed they had heard slaves bragging about setting the fires and threatening worse. Other slaves looked up to men like Gabriel, and Gabriel himself found inspiration in the French and Saint-Domingue revolutions of 1789. (The Stono Rebellion had been the largest slave revolt on these shores to this point, but that occurred in the colonies, before America won its independence from Great Britain.) In "Toward Freedom: An Analysis of Slave Revolts in the United States," (1964) Marion Kilson analyses American slave revolts differently, putting them into three categories: The first type is a "systematic or rational rebellion," by which a plan was developed to overthrow the slave system and establish a new state in place of the slave regime. Stono Rebellion, 1739. Word quickly spread to Richmond, other nearby towns and plantations and well beyond to Petersburg and Norfolk, via free and enslaved blacks who worked the waterways. Before the end of the summer of 1741, 17 blacks would be hanged and 13 more sent to the stake, becoming ghastly illuminations of white fears ignited by the institution of slavery they so zealously defended. Hereâs why. The New York City Conspiracy of 1741. He imbibed the political fervor of the era and concluded, albeit erroneously, that Jeffersonian democratic ideology encompassed the interests of black slaves and white workingmen alike, who, united, could oppose the oppressive Federalist merchant class. After communicating his intentions to slaves on the Andry plantation and in nearby areas, on the rainy evening of Jan. 8, Deslondes and about 25 slaves rose up and attacked the plantation’s owner and family. Latin American and Caribbean African Americans challenged their masters more often than their North American counterparts. The repercussions of this rebellion resulted in the tortuous execution of 18 participants in the rebellion. Of his fellow rebels, 21 went to the gallows, and another 16 were sold away from the region. Fires erupted elsewhere in the city — four in one day — and in New Jersey and on Long Island. The most serious slave rebellion in the the colonial period which occurred in 1739 in South Carolina. Some even compare enslaved Americans to their brothers and sisters in Brazil, Cuba, Suriname and Haiti, the last of whom defeated the most powerful army in the world, Napoleon’s army, becoming the first slaves in history to successfully strike a blow for their own freedom. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Rarely can I think of a colder, nastier set of claims than these about the lack of courage or “manhood” of the African-American slaves. Spurred on by two liberty-minded French soldiers he met in a tavern, Gabriel began to formulate a plan, enlisting his brother Solomon and another servant on the Prosser plantation in his fight for freedom. 2. Born on Oct. 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Va., the week before Gabriel was hanged, Nat Turner impressed family and friends with an unusual sense of purpose, even as a child.