"We Is Not Converted": Kongolese Catholics, the Stono Rebellion, and Spanish Religious Sanctuary

Abstract

This is a story of law and religion in an overlooked trilogy within Black, Catholic, Hispanic, colonial, and American history. The Kingdom of Kongo voluntarily adopted Catholicism in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Catholicism became a core part of its political identity and a major way through which Kongo resisted Portuguese exploitation and enslavement. However, Kongo's compromises with these evils gave rise to a heretical movement that triggered conflict, reforms, and mass enslavement and deportation. Some of those deported found themselves in South Carolina. Some may have been part of a ditch-cutting crew at Stono that led the largest slave uprising in England's mainland American colonies. Their Rebellion has many Kongolese characteristics and may have been partly a Catholic response to English Protestantism. This is especially so because the rebels apparently meant to reach sanctuary in Spanish Florida. Escapees from Protestant rivals inspired Spain to offer freedom to fugitive slaves who converted to Catholicism. While Florida had a racial hierarchy and practiced slavery, its version was somewhat milder due to religious and legal influences. Free Blacks, especially escapees from the English, proved highly loyal subjects and militiamen-and Spain reciprocated, protecting their freedom against English and American hostility. This history resists generalization, but betwixt law and narrative, African ancestors and early Americans experienced freedom and power, betrayal and inclusion. This trilogy is worth remembering as America comes to a more nuanced understanding of its heritages.

Keywords: history, law, religion, Catholic, Kongo, America, Spain, Florida, sanctuary, migration, refugees, fugitives, slavery, South Carolina, Stono Rebellion, Hispanic, Black, Protestant, England, empires, early modern, militia, race