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If you are still — very still — they say, you can hear their chains. If you hold your breath, you can hear their song. The water laps quietly — nothing. The moonlit ripples dance. Like the rolling waves, whispers drift through time. The year was 1803. The Georgia Coast was dotted with a number of thriving plantations, cultivating rice and cotton, built on the backs and blood of enslaved Africans. To foster a booming industry, thousands of men, women, and children were stolen — primarily from West Africa — and shuttled across the treacherous Middle Passage to America. Many did not survive the voyage, but for those who did, a fate likely worse than death awaited them on the shore. And for a particular group of abducted Africans, it is said, death was preferable to a life in bondage. The ancient Igbo tribe (also written as Ebo) of Nigeria were a people with a rich culture and heritage. They were talented artisans, well-known for their skill in ironworks. There are still communities of Igbo people today who continue to honor their traditions and heritage. And their stories.
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In fact, one of those has shaped the history of St. Simons Island — the story of Ebo Landing on Dunbar Creek. The story, which has been retold for more than 200 years, began when John Couper of Cannon’s Point plantation and his business associate, Thomas Spalding of Sapelo Island, purchased 75 male Igbo slaves at the Charleston market. They were bought for reportedly “up to $100 each,” a horrific fact that hasn’t lost its gravity after all this time. Once docked at Dunbar, the Igbos were to be readied for sale or distribution to the island cotton plantations. But as the boat made its way toward the spartina grasses of the shore, the Igbos decided they weren’t going to fold to the hand they’d been dealt — they were going to fight. It is said that the tribesmen overpowered the crew, sending them into the waters where they drowned.
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