European-Americans in the Louisiana area worry about slave uprisings fueled by the spread of ideas of freedom from the French and Haitian revolutions.

The German Coast—in St. Charles and St. James Parishes, Louisiana—is an area of sugar plantations, with a dense population of enslaved people.

Blacks outnumber whites by nearly five to one according to some accounts.

More than half of those enslaved may have been born outside Louisiana, many in Africa.

The free black population in the overall Territory of Orleans has nearly tripled from 1803 to 1811 to five thousand, with three thousand arriving in 1809–1810 as migrants from Haiti (via Cuba), where in Saint-Domingue they had enjoyed certain rights as gens de couleur.

Territorial Governor William C.C. Claiborne has struggled with the diverse population since the U.S. negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Not only are there numerous French and Spanish-speaking people, but there is a much greater proportion of native Africans among the enslaved than in more northern U.S. states.

In addition, the mixed-race Creole and French-speaking population has grown markedly with refugees from Haiti following the successful slave revolution.

The American Claiborne is not used to a society with the number of free people of color that Louisiana has—but he works to continue their role in the militia that had been established under Spanish rule.

He has to deal with the competition for power between long-term French Creole residents and new U.S. settlers in the territory.

Lastly, Claiborne is suspicious that the Spanish might encourage an insurrection.

He struggles to establish and maintain his authority.

The waterways and bayous around New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain make transportation and trade possible, but also provide easy escapes and nearly impenetrable hiding places for runaway slaves.

Some maroon colonies have continued for years within several miles of New Orleans.

A group of Africans who had been forcefully enslaved meets on January 6, 1811.

It is a period when work has relaxed on the plantations after the fierce weeks of the sugar harvest and processing.

As planter James Brown will testify weeks later, "The black Quamana [Kwamena, meaning "born on Saturday"], owned by Mr. Brown, and the mulatto Harry, owned by Messrs. Kenner & Henderson, were at the home of Manuel Andry on the night of Saturday–Sunday of the current month in order to deliberate with the mulatto Charles Deslondes, chief of the brigands."

Slaves had spread word of the planned uprising among the slaves at plantations up and down the "German Coast" along the Mississippi River.

The revolt begins on January 8 at the Andry plantation.

The slaves strike and badly wound Manuel Andry, then kill his son Gilbert.

The rebellion gains momentum quickly.

The fifteen or so slaves at Andry's plantation, about thirty miles (fifty kilometers) upriver from New Orleans, join another eight slaves from the next-door plantation of the widows of Jacques and Georges Deslondes.

This is the home plantation of Charles Deslondes, a field laborer later described by one of the captured slaves as the "principal chief of the brigands."

Small groups of slaves join from every plantation the rebels passed.

Witnesses remark on their organized march.

Although they carry mostly pikes, hoes, axes, and few firearms, they march to drums while some carry flags.

From ten to twenty-five percent of any given plantation's slave population joins with them.

At the plantation of James Brown, Kook, one of the most active participants and key figures in the story of the uprising, joins the insurrection.

At the next plantation down, Kook attacks and kills François Trépagnier with an axe.

He is the second and last planter killed in the rebellion.

After the band of slaves passes the LaBranche plantation, they stop at the home of the local doctor.

Finding the doctor gone, Kook sets his house on fire.

Some planters will testify at the trials in parish courts that they had been warned by their slaves of the uprising.

Others regularly stay in New Orleans, where many have town houses, and trust their plantations to overseers to run.

Planters quickly cross the Mississippi River to escape the insurrection and to raise a militia.

As the slave party moves downriver, they pass larger plantations, from which many slaves join them.

Numerous slaves join the insurrection from the Meuillion plantation, the largest and wealthiest plantation on the German Coast.

The rebels lay waste to Meuillion's house.

They try to set it on fire, but a slave named Bazile fights the fire and saves the house.

The battle is brief. Forty to forty-five slaves are killed within a half-hour of the attack and the remainder slip away into the woods.

Perret and Andry's militia try to pursue slaves into the woods and swamps, but it is difficult territory.