South Carolina's leaders responded to the Stono Rebellion by

A) organizing a new march toward Florida.

B) ending the slave codes.

C) enacting stricter slave codes.

D) freeing the enslaved people who started it.

The correct answer is C. South Carolina's leaders responded to the Stono Rebellion by enacting stricter slave codes.

Explanation:

The Stono Rebellion was one of the earliest known slave rebellions in the United States. On September 9, 1739, a group of slaves from South Carolina gathered at the Stono River (whence the name of the rebellion comes) to plan an armed demonstration for their own freedom.

Several factors may have led the slaves to believe that a rebellion would be successful. An epidemic of yellow fever had weakened slaveholders, rumors of an upcoming war between Britain and Spain, and rumors of slaves having been freed by fleeing to Spanish-controlled Florida had been heard, giving the slaves hope for their own freedom. It has also been suggested that the slaves deliberately made sure that the revolt took place before September 29, when the "Security Act" of 1739 (which made it mandatory for white men to carry weapons on Sundays) should apply. It may be that they realized that if they did not act before September 29, they would have wasted their only chance.

On September 9, 1739, twenty African-American Carolinians, led by the Angolan slave Jemmy, met on the Stono River, a few miles southwest of Charleston, South Carolina. They traveled along the road with a sign with the text "Liberty", and they sang in unison the same words. They seized weapons and ammunition at a store on Stono Bridge, where they also killed two shop assistants. They raised a flag and continued south toward Spanish Florida, a well-known refugee area for escaped slaves. They gathered more recruits along the way and ended up with 80 men. They burned seven plantations and killed 20 white people. South Carolina's Deputy Governor, William Bull, and four of his friends rode into the group by mistake. Bull fled and warned other slave owners. They harbored a mob of plantation and slave owners and set out to look for Jemmy and his followers.

The next day armed militia captured the escaped slaves. Twenty white Carolinians and forty-four of the slaves died during the fighting, before the uprising was finally defeated. The captured slaves were then decapitated, and their heads nailed on poles along the road between the battlefield and Charles Town.

The following year, another uprising followed in Georgia, and the year after that another took place in South Carolina, which the colonialists suspected was inspired by the Stono insurgency. The Stono rebellion caused a ten-year long cessation of slave imports through Charleston and resulted in a stricter climate for the slaves, including the ban on slaves to make money and receive education.

The Answer Is B. ending the slave codes.