Three hundred Serb notables gather on February 14, 1804, in the small Šumadija village of Orašac, nearby modern Arandelovac, in Marićevića jaruga, and decide to undertake an uprising.

Prota Mateja and several other leaders have organized military detachments that have engaged the dahis in Valjevo.

Karadjordje ("Black George") Petrović, so named because of his dark complexion and penetrating eyes, is elected as the leader of the uprising, which starts immediately.

The son of a peasant, Karadjordje had in his youth herded swine and goats; In 1787, he had migrated to Austria, where he had joined the army and served with distinction in Italy and against the Turks.

Karadjordje had made his home in Topola (Serbia) at the end of the Austro-Turkish war in 1791, and had prospered by trading in livestock.

When Prota Mateja hears of this, he urges all Serb leaders to resist the dahis and the Ottoman authorities.

Mateja is appointed deputy-commander of Valjevo, and later acts as diplomat to Russia, Austria, Bucharest and Constantinople.

That afternoon, a Turkish inn (caravanserai) in Orašac is burned and its residents flee or are killed.

Similar actions are undertaken in surrounding villages, then spread further.