Throughout the annals of American slavery, slaves have resisted captivity and strived for freedom from slavery, usually against all odds. The Creole rebellion of 1841 represented one of the most successful uprisings in US history, where more than 100 captives were granted their freedom.
Like the famous Amistad rebellion two years earlier, which had resulted in a dramatic Supreme Court case allowing slaves to return to Africa, the Creole revolt was also a mutiny aboard a brig of slavery. But while the Amistad had illegally transported its 53 captives through the Middle Passage, in violation of the 1808 ban on the American transatlantic slave trade, the Creole was transporting human “cargo” from Virginia to the slave markets of New Orleans, as part of the US Internal Slave Trade. Most of the 134 Creole captives were owned by the shipowners; others belonged to a Virginia trader who was on board the brig with his 15-year-old nephew, educating him in the trade in human trafficking.
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The rebellion, which took place on November 7, 1841, in waters 130 miles northeast of the coast of Abacos, Bahamas, was successful because its organizers knew they had a chance to break free. they could seize and redirect the ship to British territory, where the British slave’s Abolition Act 1833 had ruled human servitude illegal. Indeed, once the brig reached Nassau, local officials in the Bahamas, operating under British law – and under pressure from its own population of former slaves – informed the Creole captives they were free to leave.
But that didn’t stop him. The Creole incident highlighted the growing international disparity in how countries perceive the practice of human servitude. Specifically, he renewed the debate over whether the British, using their own anti-slavery laws, had the right to seize American property. (In the years leading up to the Creole revolt, British authorities freed the enslaved captives of four other shipwrecked American slave brigs on their territory.) And that aggravated the ongoing tensions between Britain and the United States. on conflicts of jurisdiction and the definition of international law. the limits of legalized slavery.
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Iron shackles, dated before 1860.
Courtesy of the Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, gift from the Liljenquist Family Collection
How the mutiny unfolded
It is unlikely that the Creole revolt was spontaneous. Instead, it appears to have been coordinated by a handful of enslaved men led by Madison Washington, who had previously fled to freedom once. Born into slavery in Virginia, Washington had escaped to Canada two years earlier and was recaptured after coming south to free his wife. As Washington roamed the Underground Railroad and mingled with abolitionists, it likely learned – if it didn’t already know – of the British slavery ban, the fate of previous ships, and the mutiny of Amistad. Abolitionist Robert Purvis, who hosted Washington on his trip to Philadelphia, later wrote about his guest’s deep fascination with the story behind a painted portrait belonging to Purvis. He represented Cinque, the African rice farmer who became the hero of the Amistad uprising.
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The rebellion began about a week after the trip began, around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 7. It was then that the first companion of Creole, Zephaniah Gifford, on the lookout, discovered and demanded that Washington reveal himself from the hold reserved for slaves. . Like many other slave brigs of the time, Creole maintained separate holds for enslaved men and women. And unlike the transatlantic slave ships, the Creole captives were neither chained nor held; they were locked in the hold. Some were able to move over the bridge during the day. Washington, who worked on board as a chef for the slaves, had a prime pole for finding weapons and observing the routines of the crew.
After being discovered, Washington climbed onto the bridge and pushed Gifford to the ground. Before the first companion could recover, he was shot and seriously injured. As the sound of the bang echoed through the brig, Washington called out to those below the bridge, “Come on, my boys, we have started and must do this.” As the injured Gifford fled to alert the rest of the crew, three other enslaved people, led by one named Ben Blacksmith, followed behind and killed slave manager John Hewell and wounded the ship’s captain, Robert Ensor.
Amid the commotion and commotion, Ensor and Gifford climbed up to hide on the platform atop the main mast. When the enslaved ringleaders found them, they asked Gifford to come down or they would shoot them both. After the first mate’s descent, Blacksmith held a musket to his chest as Washington demanded he direct the Creole towards British territory. En route to Nassau, the slaves kept the crew under surveillance and locked the captain with his family in the forward hold with two other slaves stationed.
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Battle for jurisdiction in the Bahamas
When the Creoles reached Nassau on November 9, Gifford managed to contact the American consul, John Bacon. The consul immediately informed the British Governor of the Bahamas, Francis Cockburn, who sent 25 soldiers to seize the ship and tie up the culprits. Subsequently, in a special session to discuss Creole, the Nassau council said that municipal courts had no jurisdiction over mutiny and murder at sea. They decided to investigate, send report to London and await further instructions. The governor also refused the US consul’s request to hold the captives until a US warship can arrive and extradite the mutineers to America for trial.
News of the slaves being held aboard the Creole mobilized a massive crowd of Afro-Bahamians to surround the ship in boats, loudly demanding the release of those on board. Most had been freed in the British Abolition Act 1833; others were African Americans who had been freed when their slave brigs were wrecked off the shores of the Bahamas. Concerned that the local crowd might overtake Creole, the crew attempted to seize the ship and make a break for New Orleans, but the soldiers stationed on board thwarted their efforts. After the Attorney General of Nassau transferred the 19 Creole mutineers to land for confinement, he announced that the remaining slave captives were “free and free to go ashore, and wherever you see fit.”
When news of Creole’s fate reached US Secretary of State Daniel Webster, he declared it a violation of the laws of nations. The American minister in Great Britain, meanwhile, asked for redress. He argued that since the enslaved persons were recognized as property by the US constitution, the release of the enslaved persons belonging to the Americans by the authorities in Nassau constituted an illegal seizure of US property. British officials have refuted that, thanks to their Slave Abolition Act, they no longer legally recognize slavery and do not have the power to detain enslaved people against their will without criminal charges.
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The Creole incident retreated into a broader negotiation
In 1842, however, the Creole question was part of a larger series of disputes with Britain over the unresolved border between the British Canadian colonies and the northern states of America. To resolve these issues, a British delegation traveled to the United States, led by Lord Ashburton, to negotiate a treaty.
After the negotiations stalled, Ashburton promised Webster that the British government would order its colonial officials to avoid “unofficial interference with ships pushed out of necessity into British ports.” And he agreed to send the Creole question back to London for consideration. But the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed on August 9, 1842, did not resolve it.
The following year, a joint complaints commission finally settled the Creole affair between the two nations. The committee awarded the owners of freed slaves in Nassau $ 110,330, declaring the seizure of cargo from an American ship a violation of international law.
Through it all, the persistent demand for redress from US authorities exemplified the US investment in the institution of bondage. While Britain, the United States and other powers signed treaties to end the transatlantic slave trade, the domestic slave trade in the United States, which fueled the nation’s agrarian economy booming, continued to develop until the middle of the 19th century.
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