Santo Domingo Slave Rebellion

On this day in 1521, the earliest recorded slave rebellion in the Americas occurred in Santo Domingo, on the island of Hispaniola. Just days after the rebellion, the colonial authorities introduced a set of laws to prevent another uprising. These are thought to be the earliest surviving laws created to control enslaved Africans in the New World. The rebellion started on the Nueva Isabela sugar plantation owned by the colony's governor Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus. The text of 1522 slave laws say the rebels "agreed to rebel and rebelled with intention and purpose to kill all the Christians they could and to free themselves and take over the land." Local oral tradition says that the rebellion was led by Maria Olofa (Wolofa) and Gonzalo Mandinga, a romantic couple, both Muslims from the Wolof nation.