Fatal Freedom

In May 1803, an event that would be considered the first freedom march in American history occurred. 75 enslaved Igbos (who would now be called Nigerians), while being taken to Savannah, Georgia on slave ship 'The Wanderer”, revolted, drowned their captors, and crashlanded at Dunbar Creek on St. Simons Island, Georgia. After marching off the ship, the Igbos sang while following their leader into the sea in an act of mass suicide.

fatal freedom

Of the 75 who revolted, only 13 bodies were recovered, meaning that some may have survived and were sold into slavery. Oral traditions would say that the Igbo captives walked on water or flew back to Africa. This fatal freedom march shows the atrocities of American slavery; that a group of people who sang and danced and loved life would rather die an excruciating death than be enslaved.