The Igbo Landing event stands out in the history of American slavery because it was not a typical plantation revolt, escape attempt, or organized military insurrection. Instead, they rebelled against slavery in the most final way, walking into the waters rather than live as captives.
By the early 1800s, the Atlantic slave trade had been violently uprooting millions of West Africans and transporting them across the ocean to the Americas for more than a century. Men, women, and children were torn from their homes, families, and communities, forced into a system that treated them as property rather than human beings.
The journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, was overcrowded and brutal, with disease, malnutrition, and abuse causing the deaths of many before they even reached the Americas. Those who survived were sold at markets in the Americas and forced to work on plantations under harsh conditions, beginning lives of enslavement far from their homelands.
Among the many ethnic groups captured and sold into slavery were the Igbo people from what is now southeastern Nigeria. In the American slave market, the Igbo were known for their fierce independence and strong will, qualities that both enslavers and other enslaved people recognized. They were admired for their resilience, but feared by planters who understood that the Igbo would resist oppression whenever possible, refusing to submit quietly to a life of bondage.
In the spring of 1803, around 75 Igbo captives survived the brutal Middle Passage and arrived in Savannah, Georgia, aboard a transatlantic slave ship. Once ashore, they were sold into slavery for $100 each, a total of $7,500, equivalent to roughly $215,000 today, to agents of two planters, John Couper and Thomas Spalding, who operated plantations on nearby St. Simons Island.
The captives were then chained and loaded aboard a smaller vessel, described in contemporary accounts as The Schooner York or the Morovia, to be transported down the Georgia coast to the plantations where they would be forced to labor.
During the journey, the captives rose in rebellion, seizing control of the ship and drowning some of their captors. The vessel ultimately ran aground at Dunbar Creek, the very place now remembered as Igbo Landing.
The exact sequence of events that followed is shrouded in partial documentation and myth, but according to Contemporary accounts, the captive Igbos walked into the swamp and ultimately into the waters of Dunbar Creek.
A high-ranking Igbo elder reportedly guided them, chanting in their native language, “The Water Spirit brought us, the Water Spirit will take us home.” In that moment, they embraced their spiritual protector, Chukwu, and chose death over captivity. Some drowned immediately, while others were later recovered by bounty hunters, though survivors were few and scattered to nearby plantations.
This act, collective suicide, sets Igbo Landing apart from most other forms of resistance in the history of American slavery. In many documented cases of rebellion or escape, enslaved Africans employed a variety of resistance strategies. These included:
Work slowdowns, feigned illness, and sabotage to decrease plantation productivity.
Running away to maroon communities or the North to seek freedom.
Armed revolts like those led by Charles Deslondes, Nicholas Kelly, or Nat Turner.
What makes the Igbo Landing event extraordinary is that the captives did not seek freedom in the conventional sense (such as escape or fight) but chose an act that ensured they could not be enslaved at all. This differs from other rebellions where, even in defeat, participants hoped to continue living free or in resistance.
One of the key sources for the event is a letter and report associated with Roswell King, a white overseer on nearby plantations, who noted the recovery of bodies and described the scene. Historians also reference a letter, now preserved at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, by Savannah slave dealer William Mein that details how some captives drowned in the marshes while others may have been taken by bounty hunters and enslaved anew.
For decades, the story existed primarily through oral retellings among the Gullah/Geechee communities along the southeastern U.S. coast. Many early scholarly authorities initially treated the account as folkloric or symbolic rather than a strict historical event. However, by the late 20th century, researchers had confirmed the factual basis of the episode through archival evidence, plantation records, regional histories, and physical surveys of the site.
The site where the event occurred on St. Simons Island, now known as Igbo Landing, has become a place of historical recognition. In May 2022, the Georgia Historical Society and local partners dedicated a formal historical marker commemorating the uprising and the captives’ choice of death over enslavement. The marker highlights the event’s significance and acknowledges its presence in African American oral history and legacy.
While Igbo Landing was documented in contemporary accounts, its cultural resonance grew through generations of oral tradition, particularly among Gullah/Geechee communities in Georgia and South Carolina. These narratives preserved the memory of the captives’ resistance long before academic historians fully verified the event.
The episode has inspired artistic, literary, and cultural works that explore themes of freedom, identity, and resistance. However, the article above limits itself to verifiable historical facts and does not dwell on folkloric elements or supernatural interpretations that are part of later cultural traditions.
Sources:
https://tubmanmuseum.com/the-story-of-igbo-landing/
https://www.searchablemuseum.com/the-water-spirit-will-take-us-home/
https://erenow.org/common/american-myths-legends-tall-tales-3-volumes-encyclopedia-american-folklore/223.php
https://www.nps.gov/fofr/learn/historyculture/igbo-landing.htm
Georgia Historical Society Dedicates New Civil Rights Marker Recognizing Ibo Landing
