Dunbar Creek: Where The Brave Igbo Men And Women Chose Death Over Slavery

Igbo Landing is a historic site in the sand and marshes of Dunbar Creek in St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia. It was the setting of the final scene of an 1803 resistance of enslaved Igbo people brought from West Africa on slave ships. Its moral value as a story of resistance towards slavery has symbolic importance in African American folklore and literary history.

In May 1803 a shipload of seized West Africans, upon surviving the middle passage, were landed by US-paid captors in Savannah by slave ship, to be auctioned off at one of the local slave markets. The ship's enslaved passengers included a number of Igbo people from what is now Nigeria. The Igbo were known by planters and slavers of the American South for being fiercely independent and more unwilling to tolerate chattel slavery. The group of 75 Igbo slaves were bought by agents of John Couper and Thomas Spalding for forced labour on their plantations in St. Simons Island for $100 each.The chained slaves were packed under the deck of a small vessel named the The Schooner York. to be shipped to the island (other sources write the voyage took place aboardThe Morovia During this voyage the Igbo slaves rose up in rebellion taking control of the ship and drowning their captors in the process causing the grounding of the Morovia in Dunbar Creek at the site now locally known as Ebo Landing. The following sequence of events is unclear as there are several versions concerning the revolt's development, some of which are considered mythological. Apparently the Africans went ashore and subsequently, under the direction of a high Igbo chief who was among them walked in unison into the creek singing in Igbo language "The Water Spirit brought us, the Water Spirit will take us home", thereby accepting the protection of their God, Chukwu and death over the alternative of slavery. Roswell King, a white overseer on the nearby Pierce Butler plantation, wrote one of the only contemporary accounts of the incident which states that as soon as the Igbo landed on St. Simons Island they took to the swamp, committing suicide by walking into Dunbar Creek.A 19th century Savannah-written account of the event lists the surname Patterson for the captain of the ship and Roswell King as the person who recovered the bodies of the drowned. A letter describing the event written by William Mein, a slave dealer from Mein, Mackay and Co. of Savannah states that the Igbo walked into the marsh, where 10 to 12 drowned, while some were "salvaged" by bounty hunters who received $10 a head from Spalding and Couper.Survivors of the Igbo rebellion were taken to Cannon’s Point on St. Simons Island and Sapelo Islandwhere they passed on their recollections of the events.

Igbo Landing was the final scene of events which, in the heyday of slavery in the United States in 1803, amounted to a "major act of resistance" and as such these events have led to enduring symbolic importance in African American folklore and literary history.The mutiny by the Igbo tribes people has been referred to as the first freedom march in the history of America.Although the events had been put off as mere Afro-American folktale for more than two centuries, research since 1980 has verified the factual basis of the legend and its historical content
Currently although the site bears no official historical marker, and a controversial sewage disposal plant was built beside the historical site in the 1940s, it is still routinely visited by historians and tourists.The event has recently been incorporated into the history curriculum in Coastal Georgia Schools.

http://ifedubatochukwu..co.ke/2015/09/dunbar-creek-where-brave-igbo-men-and.html

Respect to my Igbo brothers but they shouldn't have committed suicide.. they should have formed a group and soon others opposing slave trade would have joined them.

donholy28:
Respect to my Igbo brothers but they shouldn't have committed suicide.. they should have formed a group and soon others opposing slave trade would have joined them.

Form gini
Abeg go siddon one side

On the flip side
I pay my deepest respects to my ancestors who chose freedom in death over life in slavery...and I solemnly promise them that the Igbos would never bend the knee ever again!
And when Biafra comes,those Africans in the US and the Caribbean who can prove their Igbo ancestry would be given Biafran passports with the option of a right of return

cheruv:

Form gini
Abeg go siddon one side

On the flip side
I pay my deepest respects to my ancestors who chose freedom in death over life in slavery...and I solemnly promise them that the Igbos would never bend the knee ever again!
And when Biafra comes,those Africans in the US and the Caribbean who can prove their Igbo ancestry would be given Biafran passports with the option of a right of return

Nwanne u have a good dream...but how do u hope to achieve it?

Those were the days Ijaws were slaves merchants

respect to my fore fathers mehn.

a minute of silent plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

phyllosilicate:
Those were the days Ijaws were slaves merchants

Bonny reaped alot from the trade in Igbo slaves but ended up losing their language.the neighboring ijaw clans kalabari and wakrike instead of selling the Igbos they bought naturalized them into their cultures with the men marrying the female slaves while giving out their daughters in marriage to the male slaves.the effects this had on these kingdoms was more profound in Wakrike which resulted in their being bilingual in Igbo and their native okirika.
Most of those Igbos also settled in bonny..which resulted in the demographic change of the area as most of the people excluding the ruling class are of Igbo descent.
So as you see,they made money but lost their history

They wer brave if it was so. Personally, I wudnt av bn able to. At least the descendants are free. Brave they wer

I don't doubt this report, Igbos are daring and naturally proud. Average Igbo will choose to die than serve another human