Objective To investigate the effect of resveratrol on apoptosis of tissue around hematoma and its mechanism in rats with intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods The cerebral hemorrhage model was made by the two-step injection of blood. The rats were randomly divided into three groups including treatment group, control group and sham-operation group. Each group was subdivided into 3-, 6-, 12-, 24-, 48-, 72- and 168-h groups with 6 rats in each group. The levels of p-JAK2, Bcl-xl, p-Stat3 and caspase-3 proteins were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. TUNEL method was used to detect the change of apoptosis index. Results The apoptosis index of the treatment group was lower than that of the control group at each time point (P < 0.05). The apoptosis index in the sham-operation group was lower than that of the control group and the treatment group (P < 0.05). The expressions of p-JAK2, p-Stat3 and Bcl-xl proteins were higher in the treatment group than in the control group at each time point (P < 0.05) whereas the expression of caspase-3 protein was lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The expressions of the four proteins in the sham-operation group were lower than those in the control group andthe treatment group (P < 0.05). Conclusions The anti-apoptosis effect of resveratrol is to promote the phosphorylation of Stat3 and JAK2, and thus to increase the expression of Bcl-xl and reduce the expression of caspase-3.