"At the site of the largest slave revolt in history, a new generation is fighting for a cleaner future."
"On a recent Wednesday night, three flares were raging from the industrial smoke stacks at Norco Shell, so bright they could be seen miles away from the interstate at the Bonnet Carré Spillway. They were my guide to Woodland Plantation in La Place, Louisiana, whose new owners were commemorating the site of the largest enslaved revolt in U.S. history.
Woodland was recently purchased by twin sisters Joy and Jo Banner, who founded the Descendants Project to document ancestral lineages of enslaved people and promote the well-being of Black people along the Mississippi River in Louisiana. They’re working to preserve the history of the plantation, with the idea that investing in the region’s cultural resources can provide an alternative to the extractive industries that are polluting the region and warming the climate.
On a cold and rainy January night in 1811, the plantation’s overseer Charles Deslondes and a small group of rebels surrounded Woodland, then called the Andry Plantation, armed with rifles, sabers, and field tools. They overtook the house, killed Andry’s adult son, and marched downriver toward New Orleans, adding recruits from adjacent plantations. As many as 500 rebels are believed to have taken up arms and marched with Deslondes with the intention of establishing a free Black republic.
Two centuries later, about 45 audience members spilled out of a narrow drawing room of the plantation house to learn about the revolt, which was violently suppressed and largely omitted from history books. The rebels never made it to New Orleans. As many as 100 of them died, either in battle or by execution that quickly followed."
Ned Randolph reports for Yale Climate Connections April 9, 2025.
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