“The Celebrated Bandit Joe”: Uncovering Forest Joe's Lowcountry Maroon Campaign of 1821–23

In the summer of 1822, white South Carolinians were thrown into a state of hysteria after the uncovering of an alleged conspiracy by a group of Charleston slaves and free Blacks to execute slaveowners and liberate the city of from their grasp.  Though Denmark Vesey and his collaborators were betrayed and their plot was never brought to fruition, the public response of the Carolina ruling class was both swift and severe.  In the aftermath of the Vesey rebellion, the African Church formerly attended by Vesey and used by him as a planning base was burned to the ground, and authorities passed a series of laws further restricting the rights of the state’s slaves.  However, at the same time the Vesey drama was unfolding, another massive slave rebellion was underway just a few miles away.  From 1821-1823, a sizeable band of fugitive slaves living together as maroons in the swamps near the Santee River wreaked havoc on nearby plantations through regular attacks and pillaging raids. Under the leadership of the charismatic “Forest Joe,” the maroons established themselves as a fearsome force to be reckoned with in the Georgetown District. This paper will trace the fascinating rise and fall of “Forest Joe’s” Lowcountry maroon band and examine the grave threat that marronage presented to the South Carolina slave society of the 1820s.  I suggest that marronage, no different than outright slave rebellions like those threatened by Denmark Vesey and others, struck directly at the ideological underpinnings of Carolina proslavery ideology.  I will also examine the possible reasons why Vesey’s plot was widely publicized though news of Joe’s prolonged insurrection, occurring at precisely the same moment and arguably a larger threat to the security of the Lowcountry, was relatively limited.