On September 9, 1739, near the Stono River in South Carolina, about twenty enslaved people led by an Angolan named Jemmy gathered, raided a firearms shop, and marched south toward Spanish Florida, where they hoped to find freedom. The group grew to nearly 100 as they killed 55 to 60 white colonists and burned several plantations before being suppressed by the colonial militia. The Stono Rebellion was the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies prior to the American Revolution and prompted the enactment of the Negro Act of 1740, which severely restricted the rights of enslaved and free Black people in South Carolina.

The Stono Rebellion became a recurring motif in Southern historical writing and abolitionist polemics, symbolizing the inherent violence of slavery. It inspired later slave narratives and historical fiction, including works by African American authors who reclaimed the rebellion as a moment of heroic resistance. The event's legacy appears in the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and in contemporary discussions of Black liberation.