“There have been many race riots reported in this country,” began the Sept. 2, 1899 article in the Atlanta Constitution. “But the Darien affair can be safely said to stand without a parallel in the history of all the troubles.”
What was the Darien Affair, and why did it scare the bejesus out of white Georgians?
After the Civil War, Tunis Campbell was probably the most powerful Black man in America. After he was charged with distributing Sherman’s “40 acres and a mule edict,” Campbell helped McIntosh County, Ga., become a stronghold of Black political power. Not only did the Black collective own most of the land, businesses and the entire economy, but according to the Constitution, “negroes ruled the county vote and negro office holders were the rule and not the exception.” Not only did these
In 1899, Tunis’ successor and consigliere, Henry Delegal, was falsely accused of impregnating a white woman. But the residents of this majority-Black town of Gullah Geechee landowners were not about to let it go down like that.
The Constitution reports:
To the blacks Delegal was a hero, a king, and they worshiped him as a god, while to the whites around he was a terror and a man to be always feared. As the infectious increase of negro lust for white women spread over Georgia it reached the Delegal settlement and it was during that time that Delegal began to sleep with the white woman who recently gave birth to his black child…
Not until the black child came did the whites know that Delegal had gone so far with his power and when the physician attending the woman reported the facts, the blood of the whites began to boil.A citizens’ meeting was called and conducted by fair-minded men. The consensus of opinion was that no negro could sleep with a white woman in McIntosh County and go unpunished. With this determination a warrant was sworn out for Delegal’s arrest and he was jailed…
Unexpectedly and to the great astonishment of the whites the negroes arose in arms…
How did it end?
Henry Delegal was fined $300 for a misdemeanor.
How the McIntosh County Militia responded to the “Darien Insurrection” became one of the greatest stories in Black history.
