Just Before We Drown

When Igbo captives from what is currently Nigeria were transported to the Georgia coast in 1803, it resulted in one of the biggest mass suicides of enslaved people in history. Slave traders John Couper and Thomas Spalding paid an average of $100 for each of them, with the intention of reselling them to plantations on nearby St. Simons Island. About 75 Igbo slaves revolted during the voyage, took control of the ship, drowned their masters, and as a result the ship grounded in Dunbar Creek. The Igbo marched ashore singing under the direction of their high chief rather than being recaptured and forced to live as slaves. They marched into the swampy waters of Dunbar Creek where they drowned.