Curriculum unit
Slave Revolts & Resistance
Wherever there was slavery, there was resistance — from the first revolt of 1526 to Nat Turner, and from the maroons of the swamp to the freedom suits of the courtroom.
Students compare the forms and risks of resistance to slavery and assess how each uprising reshaped the laws and politics of bondage.
- Lesson 1 · 1 class period
The first revolts
ObjectivesIdentify early uprisings and the conditions that produced them.
MaterialsTimeline entries below; the Slave Revolts & Rebellions theme.
From the 1526 Gualdape rebellion to New York in 1712 and the Stono march of 1739, examine the earliest organized resistance and the brutal laws that answered it.
Teach from these moments- November 1526· debatedThe first slave rebellion on US soil
The enslaved Africans at Gualdape revolt and flee to nearby Indigenous communities; the Spanish settlement collapses.
- April 6, 1712New York City slave revolt
Enslaved New Yorkers set fires and fought back; brutal executions followed.
- 1738Fort Mose — the first free Black town
Spanish Florida charters Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first free Black settlement in what is now the U.S., for people who escaped Carolina slavery.
- September 9, 1739The Stono Rebellion
The largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies; dozens march toward Spanish Florida and freedom before being suppressed.
Discussion questionsWhy did revolts so often fail, and why did they happen anyway? What did Spanish Florida offer?
- Lesson 2 · 1–2 class periods
Gabriel, Vesey, and Nat Turner
ObjectivesCompare the major antebellum conspiracies and revolts and their consequences.
MaterialsTimeline entries below; the Confessions of Nat Turner.
Study Gabriel's conspiracy (1800), Denmark Vesey (1822), and Nat Turner's rebellion (1831), and the wave of repression each triggered.
Teach from these moments- August 30, 1800Gabriel's Rebellion
An enslaved blacksmith plans a large revolt near Richmond; betrayed and executed, it terrifies Virginia.
- July 2, 1822· debatedDenmark Vesey's conspiracy
A freedman's alleged plot for a mass uprising in Charleston ends in dozens of executions.
- August 21, 1831Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner leads the most consequential slave revolt in US history, terrifying the South into harsher repression.
Discussion questionsHow did fear of revolt shape Southern law and life? Why was literacy so threatening?
- Lesson 3 · 1 class period
Maroons and freedom suits
ObjectivesDescribe non-violent and everyday forms of resistance, from marronage to lawsuits.
MaterialsTimeline entries below; the Maroons & Self-Emancipation theme.
Examine the maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp and the freedom suits of Elizabeth Key, Mum Bett, and Quock Walker as resistance beyond open revolt.
Teach from these moments- 1656Elizabeth Key wins her freedom
An enslaved woman sues for her freedom — and wins — arguing she was the baptized daughter of a free Englishman, in one of the earliest freedom suits in the colonies.
- c. 1700· debatedMaroons of the Great Dismal Swamp
For generations, self-emancipated people build hidden communities deep in the Great Dismal Swamp, living beyond the reach of slaveholders.
- 1781The Quock Walker case ends slavery in Massachusetts
A series of freedom suits by Quock Walker leads Massachusetts courts to rule slavery incompatible with the new state constitution — effectively ending it there.
- August 21, 1781Elizabeth "Mum Bett" Freeman sues for freedom
Elizabeth Freeman wins her freedom in a Massachusetts court, arguing the new state constitution's "all men are born free" applied to her.
Discussion questionsIs escape a form of resistance? How did enslaved people use the courts against slavery?