The environmental and historic preservation nonprofit The Descendants Project is previewing an exhibit on the 1811 German Coast slave revolt this Saturday (Jan. 11) at the Woodland Plantation in LaPlace, where the rebellion started. 

The preview will provide a glimpse of a larger exhibit that the organization is planning for the 215th anniversary of the revolt in 2026.

At the event on Saturday, there will be a commemoration ceremony, musical performances, educational materials on the 1811 revolt, a multifaith blessing ceremony, a community lunch and a walkthrough of the house where the uprising started. There will also be artifacts from the Woodland Plantation such as pottery, tools and a horse saddle, along with costumes from a 2019 reenactment of the rebellion, on display at the event. Twin sisters Jo and Joy Banner, the co-founders and co-directors of The Descendants Project, will also talk about how and why they bought the property in 2024, what they plan to do with it and the connections between slavery and environmental justice.

Joy Banner said the organization is currently collecting more research for the larger exhibit in 2026.

“What is interesting and equally frustrating about the rebellion is there is so much information that is contradictory,” she said.

She said that despite the many unknowns behind the uprising, her organization wants to tell its central story of enslaved people resisting and seeking liberation.

The full exhibit will also highlight the role that maroons — self-emancipated formerly enslaved people — and women played in the resistance.

On Jan. 8, 1811, a Creole overseer at Woodland Plantation at LaPlace named Charles Deslondes organized and led a revolt with other enslaved people. They marched from what is now St. John the Baptist Parish with the goal of reaching New Orleans to take over and create a Black provisional government. 

The revolt was the largest slave rebellion in United States history, with about 500 enslaved people joining as the rebels marched to several plantations, freeing people and gaining numbers. Territorial governor William C. C. Claiborne called on troops to put down the rebellion and it was believed that the rebels were intercepted in Kenner and Destrehan.

By Jan. 11, 1811, troops had quelled the revolt. Rebels were executed and their heads were displayed on pikes as a warning to other slaves.

The temporary exhibit will open 214 years to the day the rebellion ended, to commemorate the rebels.

On Wednesday (Jan. 8), which marked 214 years from the start of the rebellion, The Descendants Project also hosted a panel discussion at Woodland Plantation.

Panelists included visual artist Dread Scott, who organized the 2019 reenactment of the uprising, Revolt1811 Museum founder Derron Cook and Whitney Plantation research director Ibrahima Seck. Joy Banner moderated the discussion.

Panelists discussed the history behind the revolt, the suppression of its history, the revolt’s ties to the Haitian Revolution and to West Africa and slavery’s connections to environmental degradation.

After the panel, Cook told Verite News that although the 1811 revolt failed, it is important to keep telling the story of what happened because it speaks of the resilience of deeply persecuted Black people who dared to fight back.

“We don’t want to repeat history,” Cook said. “We want to teach our kids the history of how they can overcome.”

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