Notable Events of Resistance (inc. Slave Revolts and Riots, Working-Class Rebellions, and Massacres)

1839 - Amistad Rebellion (All Notes)

• Slave insurrection aboard the namesake Spanish ship in international waters near Cuba 

• A group of Africans who had just been kidnapped and enslaved seized control of the namesake Spanish slave ship in international waters near Cuba. The U.S navy captured the ship and made the rebels prisoners of the U.S. government, at which point Spain demanded their return. But the rebels’ enslavement violated treaties prohibiting the international slave trade, and their status had to be determined in court

• It was significant because it became widely publicized for the abolitionist cause and ultimately reached the US Supreme Court, which freed the rebels by 1841 

• It was significant because, like all the slave rebellions, these slaves’ endeavors suggested that black dissent could never be fully subdued 

1676 - Bacon’s Rebellion (All Notes)

• Nathaniel Bacon - a young recently arrived aristocrat who took up the cause of yeoman farmers for more (Indian) land

• He formed an army and massacred the Susquehanna nation, but the Governor condemned his actions

• Ironically, the elite’s denunciation of racist genocide provoked a class-based political conflict and consolidated the push towards racial slavery

• Bacon and his supporters - small farmers, indentured servants, Africans, and poor Europeans - demanded political and social reforms

• Bacon seized control of the government and issued a “Manifesto and Declaration of the People” which charged corruption and excessive taxes and condemned the rich while exalting the common man

• His rebellion and its aftermath gave the elite a vision of their eventual fall at the hands of the biracial majority

• In response, they enacted reforms to shift the axis from class to race

  • First, they decided to wage war to dispossess the Susquehanna nation

  • Second, the new lands were priced rather cheaply

  • Third, they improved the treatment of (white) indentured servants

    • A 1680 law banned “spiriting” - the kidnapping of Englishmen

  • Fourth, they accelerated enslavement of Africans since the White Indentured Servants caused all this trouble

• It is significant that the ideological construction of the category “white” only occurs by the 1680s, after the elite felt the need to build racial unit as a protection against biracial class insurgency caused by the namesake rebellion

• Led by Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy colonist who commanded the support of an army largely made up of landless freemen, servants, and slaves; the rebellion pitted land-hungry colonists against the royal authority of Governor William Berkeley 

  • At issue was the colony’s Indian policy, which they contended was not aggressive enough to suit the many landless men who rallied around Bacon to make war on “Indians in general” and especially nearby Native American allies 

• Charged with treason after an attack on several such groups, Bacon and his makeshift army attacked the colony’s royal government, managing to capture Jamestown and set it on fire before English troops arrived to crush the rebellion 

• It was significant because of how well it illustrated the dangers posed by ex-indentured-servants and their allies

• It was significant because it underscored the dangers of important thousands of white male indentured servants into a colony that held few opportunities for them 

• It also left officials worried about the common grievances uniting both poor Whites and Black bondsmen to mobilize 

• It forced Virginia’s colonial government to sharpen its distinctions between servants and slaves 

• The legislature enacted harsh new laws allowing slave owners to kill rebellions slaves with impunity

• At the same time, it curbed planters’ power over White servants and freedmen by limiting the years of service that could be imposed on white servants and lowering the poll taxes that kept poor whites from voting 

1859 - John Brown’s Raid on Harper Ferry (All Notes) 

• Unsuccessful attempt by the namesake White abolitionist to seize the namesake federal arsenal in Virginia and incite a slave insurrection 

• News of the event inflamed the conspiratorial vies the slave South and free North increasingly had of each other 

• Pro-Slavery forces saw the namesake man as a madman 

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• It was significant because It:

  • Exposed the moral and political rift between North and South

  • Radicalized the national conversation on slavery

  • Inspired both fear and admiration

  • Foreshadowed the coming Civil War

Denmark Vesey’s Plot / Rebellion (All Notes) 

• Plot which took inspiration from the debates that led to the Missouri Compromise of 1820 

• Began to be planned in 1820, with the help of some of the namesake’s several enslaved friends in which he spent over a year recruiting other men and armed them with stolen guns and knives 

• Planned to raid Charleston’s Meeting Street Arsenal and a nearby shop to gather additional weapons for their supporters, whom they expected to number in the thousands 

• The namesake likened the planned rebellion to the delivery of the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery, having been a lay preacher at Charleston’s AME Church 

• The plot collapsed when two Charleston slaves divulged the plan to their slaveowners and local authorities swiftly suppressed the uprising 

• Over the next month, 131 slaves and free blacks were arrested and 72 were tried, convicted, and executed; more died in custody, 27 were rescued

• The namesake leader was hanged

• It was significant because the loss of slave property and labor imposed by the rebellion and its aftermath caused a severe economic burden on both the slaveowners and the state

• It was significant because it forced the South Carolinians and their state officials to limit the mobility and autonomy of their slaves quickly 

• State officials banned enslaved people from hiring themselves out, and they forbade free Blacks to hire slaves 

• They passed other laws that severely compromised the well-being of Blacks - free or enslaved 

1864 - Fort Pillow Massacre (All Notes)

• Black troops were at greater risk than white troops because of Confederate policy, which regarded Black Union soldiers as instigators of slave insurrections

• As such, they were subject to enslavement or execution upon capture

• At the namesake place in Tennessee, the killing of scores of Black prisoners of war by their Confederate captors sparked much controversy 

• The Confederates denied the incident, but the northern press called it a Massacre and used it as propaganda to promote the war effort 

• Thus, the threat of capture and possible enslavement, torture, or murder at the hands of Confederates made Black enlistment in the Union army itself an act of courage

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• It was significant because it exposed the racial brutality of the Confederate cause, galvanized Black and white Union resolve, and highlighted the heroism and sacrifice of African-American soldiers. It remains one of the clearest examples of how racism and violence shaped both the Civil War and the long struggle for Black citizenship and equality in the United States

1800 - Gabriel’s Rebellion (All Notes)

• Abortive slave plot that took place in Richmond, Virginia 

• Led by an enslaved man known as Prosser’s (his owner) Gabriel, he led a plot to overturn slavery in Richmond

• The abiding discontent among Richmond’s enslaved population to the namesake development

• Gabriel was among the Black Virginians who embraced the possibility that enslaved people could overthrow their oppressors given the recent events of the Haitian Revolution

• Aware that divisions among the French had helped set the stage for the Haitian Revolution, Gabriel hoped that Virginia’s slaves could exploit the social and political tensions among whites in their state, which were then running high in anticipation of the election of 1800

• With the aid of his brothers and other enslaved confederates, Gabriel planned to enlist about a thousand slaves to attack Richmond’s wealthy citizens, while sparing the city’s poor whites

• However, in the end, his plot collapsed 

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• It was significant because it was one of the first major organized slave revolts in U.S. history, embodying the conflict between American ideals of freedom and the reality of slavery. Although suppressed, it inspired future uprisings, provoked harsher slave laws, and stands as a powerful testament to the enslaved community’s will to resist and claim human rights

1831 - Nat Turner’s Rebellion (All Notes) 

• One of the bloodiest slave rebellions in US history 

• Spurred by David Walker’s message and work and the religious revivals 

• The namesake and a small band of fellow slaves were armed with axes and hatchets - they first murdered the namesake’s owner, Joseph Travis, and his family, and stole their small cache of guns 

• They then moved from plantation to plantation freeing slaves; killing white men, women, and children; while gathering more weapons and recruits 

• His force grew to more than 50 slaves and free Blacks, who managed to kill 60 Whites before a Virginia militia tracked them down two days later 

• The rebels were scattered but pursued by a growing force of armed Whites, who went on a killing spree that lasted more than two weeks and resulted in the deaths of more than a hundred blacks, all of whom died without trial 

• The namesake leader and his men were eventually caught and executed 

• It was significant because it terrified whites across the South to the point where Virginia legislations considering abolishing slavery rather than continue to contemplate its horrors 

• Instead, they revised the state’s legal code to bar slaves and free Blacks from preaching or even attending religious meetings without White supervision

• It was significant because, like all the slave rebellions, these slaves’ endeavors suggested that black dissent could never be fully subdued 

1841 - Creole Rebellion (All Notes)

• Led by Madison Washington 

• Slaves aboard the namesake ship, an American ship engaged in the internal slave trade, seized the vessel, sailed to British waters, and declared themselves free 

• The British accepted the slaves’ emancipation declaration, enabling them to go free in the Bahamas

• It was significant because it reinforced the insecurity that southern slaveholders felt, along with the Amistad, Nat Turner, and Denmark Vesey rebellions 

• It was significant because, like all the slave rebellions, these slaves’ endeavors suggested that black dissent could never be fully subdued 

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• It was significant because it was the largest successful slave revolt in U.S. history, demonstrating African-American resistance, leadership, and agency. It had international ramifications, influenced the domestic slave trade, and became a powerful symbol in the struggle for freedom and abolition, reinforcing the idea that enslaved people actively shaped their path to liberty

Seminole Wars (All Notes)

1786 - 1787 - Shays Rebellion (All Notes)

• Armed uprising in western Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran. It was sparked by economic hardship, high taxes, and aggressive debt collection faced by farmers after the American Revolution. Though the rebellion was ultimately put down, it had major political and historical consequences for the early United States

• It was significant because it exposed the failures of the Articles of Confederation, spurred the creation of the U.S. Constitution, and highlighted class tensions in post-Revolutionary America. It marked a turning point where the new nation recognized the need for a stronger, more balanced federal government to maintain stability and justice

1739 - Stono Rebellion (All Notes) 

• Slave rebellion that took place near South Carolina’s namesake river 

• It was led by slaves who hoped to find freedom in Spanish Florida 

• The rebels killed about 20 whites before they were captured and subdued 

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• It was significant because it 

  • Exposed the instability and brutality of colonial slavery,

  • Led to harsher slave codes and tighter racial control

  • Showed African unity and resistance traditions

  • Foreshadowed future Black revolts in American history

Haitian Revolution (All Notes)

Underground Railroad (All Notes)