Seeds of Fire: A People’s Chronology

Recalling events that happened on this day in history.
Memories of struggle, resistance and persistence.

Compiled by Ulli Diemer

September 9, 1739
Outbreak of the Stono Rebellion (also known as Cato’s Rebellion), a slave rebellion in the British colony of South Carolina. A group of slaves obtains arms and battles the South Carolina militia before eventually being defeated. Related Topics: Slave Revolts
September 9, 1828
Birth of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), novelist, social reformer, and pacifist. (August 28 old style calendar).
September 9, 1911
Birth of Paul Goodman (1911-1972), writer, social critic, anarchist, poet. Goodman wrote about a broad range of topics – urban planning, Gestalt therapy, education, militarism, technology, sexuality, and literary criticism. He once commented that “I might seem to have a number of divergent interests – community planning, psychotherapy, education, politics – but they are all one concern: how to make it possible to grow up as a human being into a culture without losing nature. I simply refuse to acknowledge that a sensible and honorable community does not exist.” Further Reading: Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life, by Paul and Percival Goodman Compulsory Miseducation, by Paul Goodman Gestalt Therapy, by Frederick Perls, Ralph E. Hefferline, Paul Goodman New Reformation: Notes of a Neolithic Conservative, by Paul Goodman People or Personnel, by Paul Goodman The Politics of Being Queer, by Paul Goodman Speaking and Language: Defence of Poetry, by Paul Goodman Utopian Essays and Practical Proposals, by Paul Goodman
September 9, 1922
Birth of Manolis Glezos, Greek socialist. On May 30, 1941, Glezos and Apostolos Santas climbed on the Acropolis in Athens and tore down the swastika flag planted there by the Nazi occupation forces. Glezos was captured, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death, but managed to escape. In the Greek civil war in 1948, he was again imprisoned and sentenced to death by the right-wing government of the time, but was saved by an international outcry. He was imprisoned again for his leftist views in 1958, and in 1961 was elected to parliament while in prison. He was imprisoned again under the Greek military dictatorship of the late 1960s. In 2012, 89-year-old Glezos was again arrested, by riot police in Athens. while protesting against the current government.
September 9, 1971
Outbreak of a prison riot in Attica, New York. Protesting against abusive and racist treatment, inmates rebel and take control of the prison, taking 33 staff hostage. After four days of negotiations, police and national guard troops suddenly storm the prison, resulting in the deaths of 29 inmates and nine hostages. In the aftermath, police and guards engage in sadistic reprisals and acts of revenge, including forcing inmates to strip naked and crawl through the mud, and vicious mass beatings. Related Topics: Prisons – Riots
September 9, 1976
The death of Mao Zedong sets off a power struggle in China. Related Topics: China