I collaborated with one of my coworkers to start the PyRestTest framework for this reason: https://github.com/svanoort/pyresttest
Although you can work with the tests in Python, the normal test format is in YAML.
Sample test suite for a basic REST app -- verifies that APIs respond correctly, checking HTTP status codes, though you can make it examine response bodies as well:
---
- config:
- testset: "Tests using test app"
- test: # create entity
- name: "Basic get"
- url: "/api/person/"
- test: # create entity
- name: "Get single person"
- url: "/api/person/1/"
- test: # create entity
- name: "Get single person"
- url: "/api/person/1/"
- method: 'DELETE'
- test: # create entity by PUT
- name: "Create/update person"
- url: "/api/person/1/"
- method: "PUT"
- body: '{"first_name": "Gaius","id": 1,"last_name": "Baltar","login": "gbaltar"}'
- headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
- test: # create entity by POST
- name: "Create person"
- url: "/api/person/"
- method: "POST"
- body: '{"first_name": "Willim","last_name": "Adama","login": "theadmiral"}'
- headers: {Content-Type: application/json}