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Igbo Landing: The Story of Rebellion and the Choice of Death over Slavery.

Feb 20, 2022 10:00AM ● By Jessica Uchechi Nwanguma

Igbo entering the waters of Dunbar Creek, Igbo Landing painting by LaRue (Dee Williams) Fair Use Image

In May 1803, a group of Igbo slaves along with other enslaved West Africans arrived in Savannah, Georgia, on a slave ship named the Wanderer. 

Like any other slave at that time, they were put up for sale before being purchased by slave merchants, John Couper and Thomas Spalding, and were purchased for $100 each.

These two slave merchants later resold them for profit to plantations on nearby St. Simon’s Island. Here, the captives were chained and packed under the deck of a coastal vessel named the York en route to St Simons Island. 


The Rebellion

Unlike other vessels that carried enslaved people, something remarkable happened on the York; 75 enslaved Igbo people revolted.

 Igbo is a tribe in present-day Nigeria renowned for being diligent, resilient, strong-willed, proud, and highly independent.

 In an act of great courage, they took control of the ship and sank it, drowning their captors in Dunbar Creek in the process. 


Death

Then, led by a chief priest, all of the Igbo slaves walked into the marshy waters of Dunbar Creek singing:

“Mmụọ mmiri du anyi bịa, mmụọ mmiri ga-edu anyi laghachi” 

In the English language, it means:

"The water spirit brought us, the water spirit will take us home”.

The site where this event occurred is today known as Igbo Landing. 

It is called a 'landing' because the captives did not 'arrive' in America. The slave dealers brought them to America against their will.


(An old abandoned boat in a marsh on St Simons Island. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)


Read 'Transatlantic Slavry: The Story of the Survivors of 'Clotilda', Amrica's Last Black Slave Ship:
pWreckage of slave ship Clotilda from Historic sketches of the South by Emma Langdon Roche publisher New York The Knickerbocker Press 1914 Source Wikimedia Commonsbrp

Transatlantic Slavery: The Story of the Survivors of ‘Clotilda’, America’s Last Black Slave Ship.

In 1860, Cudjo Lewis Kossola (Oluale Kossola), Sally Smith (Rodeshi), and Matilda McCrear (Abake) were kidnapped from Dahomey (present-day Benin Republic) and taken via a ship named 'Clot... Read More » 

 


Evidence 


A documentary record of a pair of letters is now at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

These terse manuscripts emphasized the brute financial loss and bad business practice the Igbo’s actions brought to their owners.

Roswell King, a White overseer on the nearby Pierce Butler plantation and founder of Roswell Manufacturing Company, now known as Roswell Mill, wrote the first account of the event: 

 “They took to the swamp”—committing suicide by walking into Dunbar Creek."

Rosewell and another man identified only as Captain Patterson recovered many drowned bodies. Only a subset of the 75 Igbo rebels drowned. Thirteen bodies were recovered, but others remained missing, which made some believe that some of the enslaved people may have survived the suicide episode and escaped, making the actual number of deaths uncertain.

In the same documentary record, a slave dealer named William Mein said:

“The Eboes 'took to the marsh’ where they drowned.”

The death toll tallied ten to twelve captive Africans, plus a White overseer and two sailors.

St Simons native Annie Arnold (1844-1927) told Quaker musicologist and author of slave songs of the Georgia Sea Island, Lydia Parrish, how the Eboes preferred death to a life in captivity and walked into the creek singing, 

'The water will take us away.”

 

(The area of Igbo Landing, Glynn County, Georgia, U.S., by Jud McCranie via Wikimedia Commons)


Read 'Massacre of Igbo Women in 1929 by British Soldiers':
 Massacre of Igbo Women in 1929 by British Soldiers

Massacre of Igbo Women in 1929 by British Soldiers

In 1929, Igbo women in Nigeria rose to demand their rights and fight against oppressive colonial rule. This historic uprising, known as the Women's Riot of 1929, marked a pivotal moment i... Read More » 

  

Further Reading


How the Igbo’s Got to the Americas

When transatlantic slavery started, almost every part of Africa, especially West Africa, felt the scourge of slavery. Millions of people were kidnapped during raids and sold to slave merchants

But during the 16th century, the slave trade in Igbo land attracted extra focus. The Aro Confederacy saw how lucrative the slave trade business was and began selling their kinspeople as well as people from other Igbo communities.

This act is known as the Aro Oracular Slave Network. 


The Aros were able to achieve this by:

  • Raiding Igbo villages

They captured enslaved people and sold them off to European slave traders on the coast.

  • The Cave Temple Complex

If a person commits a crime, is in debt, or did something considered an "abomination" like incest or killing a sacred animal, the chief priest and the temple guards would take them to the cave temple to face the oracle.

If they were found guilty, they would be commanded to walk further into the cave so that the spirits could devour them.

In reality, they were taken to an opening on the other side and loaded directly onto a waiting boat. This boat would take them to a slave ship en route to the Americas.


Read 'Slave Castles: The Legacy of a Horrific Past': 

Slave Castles The Legacy of a Horrific Past

Slave Castles: The Legacy of a Horrific Past

These castles which were built along Africa's West Coast near the sea were designed to assist the easy loading of their human cargoes onto ships. Read More » 

 


Did you find this interesting?

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Work Cited

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_people_in_the_Atlantic_slave_trade#:~:text=The%20majority%20of%20Igbo%20slaves,very%20differently%20from%20each%20other.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328626#metadata_info_tab_contents

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/ebos-landing/

https://www.blackexcellence.com/igbo-landing/

https://roadcourse.us/igbo-landing-in-memory-bibliographic-essay/

 

 

 

 


 Jessica Uchechi Nwanguma is a Writer, Content and Social Media Strategist. She has a degree in Dental Technology and several certifications and has taken courses on Writing, SEO and digital and content marketing. Her book 'Beyond Agadez: the untold stories of the victims of human trafficking and organised crime.' is available on Amazon Kindle. She can be found online on Candour.substack.com.





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