Charles Deslondes (1789 - 11 January 1811) was an escaped slave and the ringleader of the 1811 German Coast Uprising, a failed slave revolt in Louisiana. The rebellion lead to the deaths of two slave owners and one overseer before it was crushed and Deslondes and other rebels were summarily executed.
Biography[]
Deslondes was born on the Deslondes plantation in 1789, the mulatto son of slave owner Jacques Deslondes and one of his female slaves. Believed to be a loyal slave, he was given to slave owner Manuel Andry to work as a slave-driver.
However, unbeknownst to Andry, Deslondes's loyalty was a front. Inspired by how Toussaint Louverture had overthrown the French slavers in Haiti, Deslondes and the West African slaves Kook and Kwamena planned to stage a slave rebellion on the German Coast, drive the slavers out of Louisiana and establish a Black Republic. The three of them disseminated word of their plans amongst other slaves and prepared to start the uprising.
On the night of 6 January 1811, Deslondes and other slaves on the Andry plantation killed Deslondes's fellow slave-driver Baptiste Thomassin before forcing their way into the Andry home and attacking Manuel Andry and his son Gilbert in their beds. Gilbert was stabbed to death, but Manuel woke up and was able to escape with his life, although not without being axed in the side by Deslondes. The slaves then stole guns from the plantation and set off on their march to New Orleans.
On the way to New Orleans, Deslondes's army burned down several slave plantations and freed the slaves there, although most of the owners had fled the rebellion by the time they arrived. One exception was the notoriously cruel slave owner Francois Trepagnier, who attempted to hold his ground when Deslondes attacked his plantation but failed to kill any of the attackers and was himself killed by Kook.
Governor William Claiborne dispatched two companies of volunteer militias lead by John Shaw and Wade Hampton to crush the revolt. Hearing that the rebels, were camping at the Kenner-Henderson plantation, they attacked only to find it deserted; at the advice of Kook and Kwamena, Deslondes had ordered a retreat in order to fall back to a more strategic position before engaging the enemy. However, as the slaves fell back to the Bernoudy plantation 15 miles away they were cut off by a third militia lead by Manuel Andry, who had rallied his fellow slave owners after escaping from Deslondes. The slaves were soon routed, but only around 40 of the 500 were killed, as the rest scattered and fled into the swamps, where it would be harder for the militia to pursue them.
On 11 January, militia trackers captured Charles Deslondes hiding in the swamp. He was handed over to Andry, who took revenge for his son's death by cutting off his hands, crippling him, shooting him in the chest and finally throwing him on a pile of straw and burning him alive. His dying screams alerted other rebels that the militia were close, allowing them to flee further into the swamp.