The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering – Episode 100

The 1739 Stono Rebellion: South Carolina's Bloodiest Slave Revolt

On September 9, 1739, a group of about twenty enslaved Africans gathered near the Stono River in South Carolina, twenty miles from Charleston. Led by a man named Jemmy — possibly from the Kingdom of Kongo — they raided a store, seized guns and powder, and marched south toward Spanish Florida, recruiting dozens more along the way. Their banner was a flag; their drumbeat, a call to freedom. By sunset, over sixty people lay dead — white and Black — and the rebellion had become the largest slave uprising in British mainland North America. This episode follows the Stono Rebellion from its spark at the Stono Bridge to its bloody suppression, and examines the aftermath: a brutal new slave code, harsher restrictions, and a century of fear that shaped the plantation South. We also explore the rebels' likely Kongolese Catholic background, the Spanish promise of freedom in Florida, and how the rebellion's memory was deliberately buried. Lucas and Luna unpack a revolt that dared to imagine liberty in a land built on chains. #StonoRebellion #1739 #SouthCarolina #Jemmy #Kongolese #SlaveRevolt #NegroAct1740 #SpanishFlorida #GullahGeechee #ColonialAmerica #AtlanticSlaveTrade #Resistance #Chattahoochee #FortMose #Baptiste #History #FexingoHistory #AmericanHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1831 Nat Turner Rebellion: Enslaved Prophet's Revolt

In August 1831, an enslaved preacher named Nat Turner led a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, that became one of the bloodiest and most consequential slave uprisings in American history. This episode traces Turner's life, his religious visions, the planning and execution of the revolt, and its brutal aftermath—including the deaths of roughly 60 white men, women, and children, followed by a wave of reprisal killings of up to 200 Black people. We examine Turner's 'Confessions' as recorded by Thomas R. Gray, the legal and political fallout in Virginia's legislature, and the crackdown on Black education and assembly that followed. Also discussed: the role of the Swamp, the murder of the Travis family, the siege at Benjamin Phipps's farm, and how the rebellion hardened pro-slavery ideology across the South. #NatTurner #SouthamptonRebellion #SlaveRevolt #Virginia1831 #ThomasRGray #TheConfessions #DismalSwamp #BlackHistory #AmericanHistory #AntebellumSouth #SlaveRebellions #Prophecy #ReligiousVision #Abolitionism #History #FexingoHistory #AtlanticSlaveTrade #Resistance Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1839 Amistad Revolt: Slavers, Abolitionists, and the Supreme Court

In 1839, fifty-three Africans held captive on the Cuban slave schooner La Amistad rose up, killed the captain, and seized control of the ship, setting off a legal and political firestorm that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. This episode traces the revolt led by Sengbe Pieh (Joseph Cinqué), the dramatic trial that pitted abolitionists against the Van Buren administration, and the surprising alliance of former president John Quincy Adams, who argued the captives' right to freedom. We explore the role of the Mendi people of Sierra Leone, the complex web of Cuban slavery, Spanish colonial claims, and U.S. federal power, and how the case became a rallying cry for the American abolitionist movement. Along the way, we look at the makeshift community the Africans built while imprisoned in New Haven, and the aftermath: the long, uncertain journey home, and what became of Cinqué. A story of courage, law, and the limits of liberty—decades before the Civil War. #Amistad #SengbePieh #JosephCinqué #JohnQuincyAdams #Abolition #SlaveRevolt #SupremeCourt #Mendi #SierraLeone #Cuba #NewHaven #1839 #MartinVanBuren #LaAmistad #TransatlanticSlaveTrade #AbolitionistMovement #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

Olaudah Equiano: From Captive to Abolitionist Voice

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the extraordinary life of Olaudah Equiano, who was kidnapped from his Igbo village in West Africa as a child, survived the Middle Passage, and eventually purchased his freedom. Equiano became a leading voice in the British abolition movement, publishing his memoir 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African' in 1789. The conversation traces his journey from slavery to literacy, his service in the Royal Navy, his time as a sailor and merchant, and his pivotal role in the campaign to end the slave trade. Lucas details Equiano's harrowing account of the Middle Passage, his purchase of freedom in 1766, and his marriage to an Englishwoman. Luna highlights the radical act of an African writing his own story and influencing public opinion. The episode also touches on the controversy over Equiano's birthplace and the authenticity of his account. It ends with a reflection on how one person's testimony helped shift the moral tide in Britain. #OlaudahEquiano #GustavusVassa #Igbo #MiddlePassage #Abolition #BritishEmpire #TheInterestingNarrative #RoyalNavy #SierraLeone #SomersettCase #SlaveTrade #18thCentury #BlackHistory #Abolitionist #History #FexingoHistory #WorldHistory #SlaveNarrative Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The 1817 Negro Fort Massacre: America's Largest Slave Revolt Plot

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the little-known story of the Negro Fort, a British-built fortress in Spanish Florida that became a refuge for hundreds of escaped slaves and a beacon of freedom. After the War of 1812, the U.S. military, led by General Andrew Jackson, targeted the fort as a threat to the southern slave system. In July 1816, a U.S. gunboat fired a heated shot that detonated the fort's magazine, killing most of its inhabitants. We discuss the fort's origins, the alliance between fugitive slaves and Seminole Indians, the controversial role of the 'Maroon' communities, and how this event foreshadowed the Seminole Wars and Jackson's later presidency. We also touch on the broader context of slave resistance in the borderlands and the brutal lengths to which the U.S. government went to suppress it. #NegroFort #AndrewJackson #SeminoleWars #Maroons #SpanishFlorida #WarOf1812 #SlaveRevolt #ProspectBluff #ApalachicolaRiver #FortGadsden #RunawaySlaves #SeminoleAlliance #BlackSeminoles #USMilitaryHistory #19thCentury #AmericanHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]