Slave ship’s voyage of shame recalled

Jekyll Island —- One hundred and fifty years ago this week, long after the Atlantic slave trade had been outlawed, the Wanderer dropped anchor off the southern tip of this barrier island with 400 African slaves in its hold.

The slaves, mostly boys with tribal tattoos and sharply filed teeth, suffered from hunger, diarrhea and scurvy aboard the schooner “alive with cockroaches,” an eyewitness recounted. Dozens had died during the six-week passage across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Wanderer may have been the last slave ship to reach U.S. shores, although that distinction remains in dispute. It was, at least, the last documented slave ship to land in Georgia.

The little-known story of the Wanderer will finally be commemorated Tuesday with the unveiling of a sculpture on Jekyll, an island better known for the lavish lifestyle of white industrialists and bankers than the black slaves forced upon its shores.

Denise Fields, a community activist in nearby Brunswick and founder of a traveling museum of African-American history, likens the memorial to Plymouth Rock. Coastal Georgia, she said, does a poor job of honoring the history and the heritage of its black forefathers.

“There isn’t a cultural center or museum between Savannah and Jacksonville that really deals with the rich Gullah-Geechee heritage and African-American survival,” Fields said. “A memorial is long overdue.”

‘Cruelist of the cruel’

Congress abolished the importation of slaves in 1807, but Savannah’s Charles Lamar was determined a half-century later to reopen the Atlantic slave trade. A wealthy cotton planter from a prominent family, Lamar hired Capt. William Corrie to sail the sleek and fast Wanderer to Africa and return with a cargo of slaves.

Lamar boasted to potential investors in Northern and Southern states that “all the negroes can be sold as fast as landed at $650 a head,” according to “The Slave Ship Wanderer” published in 1967.

Corrie kept a captain’s log of his voyage, which Emory University possesses in its rare book library. It is mostly a succinct, daily recitation of wind speeds and weather.

On Oct. 4, 1858, though, the Wanderer arrived in “Bengula,” most likely Benguela, a port in present-day Angola. That was the captain’s last entry. Corrie, perhaps preferring not to keep a record of the devilment to come, didn’t record the return trip across the Atlantic.

Other published reports, though, detail the shipment of 487 captive Africans from a fort 30 miles up the Congo River to the Wanderer. Branded with the letter W, the slaves were laid side by side and given only 12 inches of width and 18 inches of height apiece.

Corrie “had chosen to be the cruelest of the cruel” when it came to apportioning space, Erik Calonius wrote in his recently published book “The Wanderer.”

Six weeks later a notice appeared in a Savannah paper warning boaters to steer clear of Jekyll. It was signed by John and Henry DuBignon Jr., who owned the island and worked its cotton plantation with 55 slaves. John DuBignon had conspired with Lamar to bring the slaves to Georgia.

On Nov. 28 the schooner anchored in St. Andrews Sound. Corrie hired a pilot to steer the Wanderer to DuBignon Landing. The suspicious pilot demanded and got $500 —- 33 times his usual fee.

Fearing arrest, Lamar quickly dispatched the slaves to Savannah, Augusta, South Carolina and Florida. One slave, Cilucangy, ended up a curiosity at the South Carolina state fair, living in a straw house, weaving baskets and reminiscing about Africa.

Corrie, Lamar, Henry DuBignon Jr. and other conspirators were arrested and charged with piracy and slave-trading. The trials riveted a pre-Civil War nation already riven by North-South tension.

Yet none of the accused were convicted. No link between Lamar and the Wanderer was proved. In fact, Lamar later repurchased the sloop for $4,001. The Savannah secessionist boasted of sailing to China aboard the Wanderer and returning with a cargo of slaves.

Black history shorted

Jekyll’s south end today looks much as it did 150 years ago, with twisted oak trees draped with Spanish moss and a pristine view of Little Cumberland Island. It’s a popular spot for shrimpers, birders and picnickers. Until recently, though, nothing hinted at the horrors that once transpired beyond the beach.

In fact, African-American history gets short shrift on Jekyll. The island’s museum displays the iron kettle supposedly used by slaves aboard the Wanderer and a brief description of their plight. Another panel shows the island’s segregated housing, where the black chauffeurs, seamstresses and laborers lived during the Jekyll Island Club’s early 20th-century heyday.

“When the club members were gone,” the panel reads, “the remaining employees had this island paradise to themselves.”

John Hunter, Jekyll’s museum director, laments the paucity of black history.

“We have very little in this community that tells the story of African-Americans and their legacy,” he said. “We recognize that Jekyll wasn’t just about the millionaires and the DuBignons.”

Jeanne Cyriaque, the African-American programs coordinator for the state’s historic preservation division, said it’s difficult to recognize black history without any descendants of slaves living on Jekyll. She noted the rich Gullah-Geechee heritage on St. Simons and Sapelo islands, as well as Savannah, Harris Neck and Darien, all with established African-American communities.

But Jekyll is finally getting its due. The Friends of Historic Jekyll Island raised $30,000 for the Wanderer memorial. Malone Design/Fabrication of Decatur crafted three 12-foot-tall panels shaped like sails and three other panels that were installed last week.

Alabama, too, commemorates the demise of its slave trading business. In 1859, the Clotilde (or Clotilda) supposedly disgorged its cargo of 150 or so Africans at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Federal pursuit prompted the Clotilde’s owner to burn the ship and set the slaves free.

Fields, the activist, insisted last week that it doesn’t matter which ship last carried slaves to U.S. shores. What matters, she said, is that America celebrates the sacrifices of all its citizens.

“It is my hope and prayer that this will focus on, and inspire additional attention to, African-American contributions to this country,” Fields said. “This could really be a eureka moment and the start of something big.”

IF YOU GO …

The public is invited to attend the 150th anniversary of the Wanderer’s landing and the unveiling of a sculpture to honor the event.

When: Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Where: St. Andrews picnic area on Jekyll’s south end.

Who: The Darien Shouters. Amir Jamal Toure, a “living historian.” Denise Fields, founder of a traveling exhibit on African-American history and culture. Erik Calonius, author of “The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy that Set Its Sails.” Relatives of one of the slaves.