7 Things You Didn’t Know About the Largest Slave Revolution in History December 22, 2014 | Posted by Christina Montford The 1811 German Coast Uprising was a revolt of Black enslaved people in Louisiana on Jan. 8-10. It is known as the largest slave revolt in history. Blacks Vastly Outnumbered Whites in the Area The German Coast was an area of sugar plantations in Louisiana that had a large population of enslaved people. According to some accounts, Blacks outnumbered whites nearly five to one. Most of them were born outside of Louisiana and many were from Africa. The Black population in the Orleans Territory tripled from 1803 to 1811. More surprisingly, the population of freed Black people in the area tripled to 5,000 during 1809 and 1810, largely due to the arrival of 3,000 Haitian immigrants. According to the 1810 census, the enslaved constituted more than 75 percent of the total population of the German Coast. Blacks Loyal to Their Masters Betrayed the Movement to Freedom One of the main reasons masters were able to find the rebels was because Blacks who were loyal to them gave up their whereabouts. They quickly crossed the Mississippi River in time to escape the insurrection and raise a militia to fight against them. William Freehling noted that “the surest way to free oneself, under domestic servitude, was not to join a revolution but to betray one.” Most famously, enslaved people from the Trepagnier camp informed Francois Trepagnier about the rebellion in hopes of gaining freedom or good favor. Leaders Planned and Built a Force of 500 Freedom Fighters The reported leaders of the uprising, Quamana, Harry and Charles Deslondes, met over two days to discuss a plan of action. The enslaved had already spread the word of an uprising in the works all down the German Coast and were waiting on the word. It began with only 64 to 125 enslaved men, but more (between 200 and 500) joined the movement on its two-day, 20-mile march. The Rebellion Was Greatly Influenced by Haiti The inspiration for the revolt came from Haiti. The success of the 1804 Haitian Revolution sparked ideas of a revolution in the colonies. It is the only revolution that resulted in the creation of a state. Many of the Black people who participated in the 1811 rebellion were brought to America, against their will, by slave owners trying to escape the Haitian Revolution. Most of the Freedom Fighters Escaped Only 95 of the brave freedom fighters involved in the revolution were killed, out of the speculated 200 to 500 who participated. Most fled into swamps and forests to escape the militia that had come after them. Those Caught Were Shown No Mercy Militias on horseback hunted the enslaved with dogs. Members of U.S. military and Marines were among those hunting freedom fighters. If they were found, the militia shot them, hacked them up with axes and collected their heads as trophies. Their heads were then carried back to the Mississippi River and placed on long wooden pikes to decorate River Road north of New Orleans for 40 miles. Forty to 60 Black people were treated in this manner. In New Orleans, courts called for the public executions of 11 more participants whose bodies were then dangled from the gates of the city and exposed in central squares. Their heads were also mounted on poles. It’s Mostly Undocumented History professor and renowned expert on the history of slavery in America, Winthrop Jordan, recently observed the 1811 insurrection remains as “the least well documented of all the major conspiracies in the American South as a whole.” There are no state or federal historical markers that commemorate the insurrection. There is only a brief sentence on the marker for the Woodland Plantation (formerly Andre Plantation) that states the existence of the uprising. It reads “Major 1811 slave uprising organized here.” The longest published account of the rebellion, ”Rebellion on the River Road: The Ideology and Influence of Louisiana’s German Coast Slave Insurrection of 1811″ by Junius Rodriguez is only 23 short pages. Since 1995, the African American History Alliance of Louisiana has held an annual commemoration at every January. Descendants of some of those involved attend each year.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 19:04:31 +0000
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