LIST: 6 Touching Facts About Igbo Landing You Should Know!! (The Largest Mass Suicide Of Enslaved People)

Igbo Landing is a historic site at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia. In 1803, one of the largest mass suicides of enslaved people took place when Igbo captives from what is now Nigeria were taken to the Georgia coast.

Here are some amazing facts to know about the Igbo Landing:

1. In May 1803, the Igbo and other West African captives arrived in Savannah, Georgia, on the slave ship the Wanderer.
2. Slave merchants, John Couper and Thomas Spalding paid $100 for each African. The Africans were to be resold to plantations on nearby St. Simons Island.
3. The chained slaves were packed under deck of a coastal vessel, the York, which would take them to St. Simons. During the voyage, approximately 75 Igbo slaves rose in rebellion, took control of the ship, drowned their captors, and in the process caused the grounding of the ship in Dunbar Creek.
4. The Igbo captured Africans marched ashore, singing, led by their high chief. At the chiefs direction, they walked into the marshy waters of Dunbar Creek, committing a mass suicide.
5. Apparently, only a subset of the 75 Igbo rebels drowned. Thirteen bodies were recovered, but others remained missing, and some may have survived the suicide episode, making the actual numbers of deaths uncertain.
6. Although for more than two centuries most authorities considered the accounts to be an Afro-American folktale, research since 1980 has verified the factual basis of the legend and its historical content. The site was included as a historic resource in a 2009 county survey.