Dylan Roof’s visit to slave plantations and confederate landmarks chart his transition
Dylan Roof’s visit to slave plantations and confederate landmarks chart his transition
Dylan Roof visited some of the South’s most notorious slave plantations and Confederate landmarks in the months leading up the Charleston church massacre.
The 21-year-old posted images of himself visiting the sites steeped in racial history on his blog – where he also penned a ranting, racist manifesto calling for a new civil war in America.
After his webpage, LastRhodesian.com, was registered on February 9, a comprehensive timeline developed of his increasingly erratic behavior.
In many of the pictures he is seen wearing a black jacket with the flags of Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa stitched onto the chest.
His concerning actions began when he was arrested at a shopping mall in possession of the painkiller, Suboxone, for which he didn’t have a prescription.
He then took several day trips around Charleston, visiting the point of entry for nearly 40 per cent of North America’s slaves and one of the most notorious plantations in the South.
In the final weeks before the shooting, he posed for pictures holding a gun he bought with money he was given for his 21st birthday.
The images became increasingly disturbing when he set fire and spat on an American flag.
Just 24 hours prior to the massacre, he is said to have discussed attacking a South Carolina college with a pair of ‘drinking buddies’ – prompting them to hide his gun from him.
February 28 – Arrest at shopping mall
Police were called after Roof started asking employees at a Charleston, South Carolina, mall bizarre questions.
According to the Daily Beast, he went into stores and asked staff what time they were open until and how many people worked there.
Officers searched him and found a painkiller, Suboxone, on him without a prescription.
He was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and banned from the mall for a year.
March 16: Visit to Sullivan’s Island
Roof poses next to a sign on the island south of Charleston.
It was the point of entry for 40 per cent of North America’s slave population – the largest port of its kind on the continent.
On the same day, he scrawled 1488 – numbers used by White Supremacists as a code for their movement – into sand on a beach.
The 14 stands for the number of words in the phrase used by the American Nazi Party: ‘We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.
The 88 stands for the eighth letter of the alphabet, ‘H’. The two letters together translate into ‘Heil Hitler’.
Roof then took a picture as the sea washed over the digits.
April 3: His birthday
To celebrate his 21st birthday, Roof is given money. According to his grandfather, he used the money to legally purchase a .45-caliber Glock pistol.
April 13: The Boone Hall Plantation
Roof is seen kneeling in front of the plantation house in Charleston. Cabins and living quarters used by the slaves are still standing at the tourist spot which was built in the 17th century.
It is one of America’s oldest plantations and still operates today.
In another disturbing image, he is seen sitting expressionless in front of two African-American mannequins, dressed as slaves.
April 17: His gift
Roof takes an image of his newly-purchased Glock and posts it on his blog. Seven bullets rest on the bed beside it.
He would go on to use another gun in the alleged shooting at the AME Emmanuel Church.
April 23: The McLeod Plantation
Dressed all in black, Roof visits the McLeod Plantation in James Island, South Carolina.
In two images he is seen kneeling in front of the main house and a collection of slave quarters.
He is then pictured standing in front of a faded, wooden sign which reads: ‘Sacred burial ground for African ancestors.’
The plantation was occupied by Confederate forces during the Civil War.
But when Charleston was evacuated in 1865, it was taken over by the 55th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry – a unit made up of African-American soldiers.
