Enslaved Africans in the South were aware of the Haitian Revolution and consequently sought avenues of escape and revolt against the plantation system. Recent accounts of the Louisiana rebellion of 1811 indicate that those involved in the planning of the break with the slave system were conscious of developments in Haiti as well as the ongoing struggle between Spain and U.S. over control of Florida.
Previous accounts of the 1811 rebellion based on newspaper reports of the period claimed that the actions of the Africans were unfocused and disorganized. However, a study conducted by Daniel Rasmussen entitled “American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt”, looks deeper into the court records during the prosecution of the African uprising leaders and also the timing of the resistance effort which was aimed at the seizure of New Orleans and the establishment of an independent republic.
A review of Rasmussen’s book published by Wendell Hassan Marsh, says that “The author situates the events in larger, international political and intellectual currents, revealing the sophistication of his subjects that many histories of slave rebels fail to portray. By the author’s account, the 1804 Haitian revolution victory inspired slaves around the colonies to rebel.” (The Root, Feb. 25, 2011)
This same review continues noting “The timing of the revolt — when there was little work and the white elites were preparing for Carnival celebrations, paired with the absence of a significant force of order because of American expansionism in Spanish West Florida — speaks to the slaves’ political and organizational acumen…. A cosmopolitan black republicanism seems to have been ripe in the region at the time of the revolt. Maroon colonies in the bayou operated as effective bases from which rebels attacked in the years leading up to the German Coast uprising. Copies of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man were found in slave quarters. Battle-hardened warriors from Ghana and Angola also make an appearance in Rasmussen’s version, in which the rebels march in formation and in uniform with cavalry support, not simply to ‘give us free,’ as Cinqué asked, but to take control of New Orleans and establish a black state.”
Anywhere from 200-500 Africans participated in the rebellion. Most of them were armed with knives, axes and other domestic weapons, but some carried guns.
The revolt erupted on January 8 at the plantation of Manuel Andry in St. Charles Parish, some thirty-six miles south of New Orleans. A principal figure in the rebellion was Charles Deslondes, who had been brought to New Orleans from Haiti.
Deslondes worked as a slave driver on the Andry plantation and occupied a relatively privileged position within the system. Nonetheless, Deslondes utilized access to the plantation house to organize fellow enslaved Africans who severely wounded Manuel Andry and killed his son before further arming themselves and setting out on the route to New Orleans picking up recruits along the way.