THE LITTLE GEORGE SHIP REVOLT
June 6, 1730
On June 1, 1730, the British ship Little George set sail for Rhode Island from the Coast of Guinea. The ship carried 96 captured Africans who were to be sold after their arrival in the colonies. Five days into the journey, several of the captive people broke free from their shackles and breached the bulkhead to access the ship's deck. There, they seized weapons and killed three crew members. The Africans used gunpowder to construct a bomb, threatening to ignite and sink the ship. The Little George crew surrendered their ship, and the former captives sailed back to the African continent, despite not having any sailing or navigation experience. The ship landed at the mouth of the Sierra Leone River, where it was abandoned by both the Africans and the British crew, making the Little George Ship Revolt one of the most successful at-sea uprisings by captured Africans in history.