German Coast Uprising, 1811In 1811, Charles Deslondes, a mulatto slave driver on the Andry sugar plantation in the German Coast area of Louisiana, New Orleans took inspiration from the success of the Haitian revolution to start one of the largest and most sophisticated revolutions in the area.
Delondes and about 25 slaves attacked the plantation owner and family of the Andry plantation — a warehouse for the local militia — as the place to begin their revolt. They ransacked the stores and seized uniforms, guns and ammunition, killed the family, though the master escaped, and incited many more to join their cause, pillaging plantations and murdering whites.
The revolt was suppressed two days later when the U.S. Army soldiers and militia attacked the rebels who had ran out of ammunition, about 20 miles from New Orleans. With no military experience and lack of ammunition, the rebels surrendered, about 20 dead, another 50 became prisoners and the remainder fled into the swamps.
To suppress further insurgents, whites rounded up another 50 insurgents, and executed a total of 100 survivors, serving their heads severed and placing them along the road to New Orleans, in what looked “like crows sitting on long poles.”
