500-Year-Old Slave Revolt of 1526 Redefines Freedom as US Turns 250

https://truthout.org/articles/500-year-old-slave-revolt-of-1526-redefines-freedom-as-us-turns-250/

500-Year-Old Slave Revolt of 1526 Redefines Freedom as US Turns 250

Before 1776 or 1619, enslaved Africans seized freedom in 1526 on land that would become the United States.

By Jesse Hagopian , TRUTHOUT
Published May 2, 2026

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The settlers established the colony of San Miguel de Gualdape, likely near the Pee Dee River in present-day South Carolina. On September 29 in the Julian calendar, or October 8 in the Gregorian calendar, the Spanish formally founded the colony. But within weeks, the situation unraveled. From the beginning, the colony was marked by crisis. Extreme heat, disease, food shortages, and escalating tensions with local Indigenous peoples pushed the settlement toward collapse.

In mid to late October 1526, enslaved Africans carried out the first recorded rebellion against slavery in what would become the United States.

Drawing on the account of Spanish chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, historian Paul E. Hoffman notes that “some of the black slaves set fire to Doncel’s house … they had their reasons.” The chronicler does not explain those reasons. He does not have to. The reason was freedom.

They burned the colonists’ homes and fled into the surrounding landscape.

What happened next is not fully documented. But historians point to a likely possibility that the escaped Africans found refuge among nearby Indigenous communities.

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