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1712 New York Slave Revolt |
The Creole case was the result of a slave rebellion in 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade.
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In 1841, a brig named Creole was transporting 135 slaves between Hampton Roads, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana.
On November 7, 1841, led by Madison Washington, nineteen male slaves on board the Creole revolted, overwhelmed the crew and demanded that the ship be taken to Liberia. On being told such a voyage was impossible with the available provisions, the ringleaders decided to head instead for Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, then a British colony. Slavery had been banned in all territories under British law since 1838. During the revolt, a white slave trader, John R. Hewell, was killed, and a slave died later of heavy wounds (Schoenherr).
On November 9, 1841, the Creole arrived at Nassau, where it was first boarded by the harbor pilot and his crew, all local black Bahamians.[1] They told the passengers that, under Bahamian colonial law, they were now free and advised them to go ashore at once.[1] The Quarantine Officer came aboard and, as the captain Robert Ensor was badly wounded, took First Mate Zephaniah Gifford to inform the American Consul of events.[1] At the request of the American consul, the governor of the Bahamas ordered a guard of 24 black soldiers, under the command of a white officer, on board the Creole to prevent the escape of those implicated in Hewell's death. This also prevented the dispersal of the former slaves.[1]
Fearing the application of British law on slavery, the American consul tried to organize a recapture of the Creole with the help of American sailors on the island. The intention was to sail her out of British jurisdiction with her 'cargo' still aboard. The attempt was made on November 12th but was foiled. A local Bahamian who had followed the Americans shouted a warning to the officer of the guard aboard the Creole, who threatened to fire into their approaching boat, which withdrew.[1]
After an investigation by magistrates, on Friday, 13 November 1841 the Bahamian attorney general came aboard and told the nineteen mutineers that they would be detained: the remainder were informed that 'you are free, and at liberty to go onshore, and wherever you please'.[1] A fleet of small boats manned by locals, which had until then surrounded the brig at a distance, immediately came forward. The boatmen were instructed by the Attorney-General not to set foot aboard the Creole but to take off such of her passengers as wished to leave. Most did so, although three women, one girl, and a boy chose to hide on board, finally returning to New Orleans.[1] The next day, a ship was advertised, paid for by the New Providence government and bound for Jamaica, to take passengers to that island 'passage paid'. Numbers of the blacks from the Creole left aboard it.[1]
The arrest of the conspirators may have sufficiently placated the American public and the government, which dropped its claims. Because there was no extradition treaty between Britain and America and, as the British authorities considered that no breach of British or maritime law had taken place,[2] after a special session of the Admiralty Court in Nassau to consider a charge of piracy, the surviving 17 mutineers were released on April 16 1842.[3]
Meanwhile the Creole had sailed back to New Orleans, arriving on December 2, 1841, with only five slaves still aboard. There, news that her former cargo had been released by British authorities caused outrage among the Southern states and something of a diplomatic row between America and Britain.
Less than a year later the Creole herself was wrecked in a violent storm while in harbour at Funchal, Madeira.[4]
The Creole case generated diplomatic tension between Great Britain and the United States, and political rumblings within the United States itself.
Secretary of State Daniel Webster stated that the slaves were legal properties and demanded their return. By this time however Great Britain had ended slavery in its nation and its colonies, so the U.S. claim was rejected on the grounds that, Nassau being British territory, British law must be applied, and under it the 'slaves' aboard the Creole were to be considered passengers. Accordingly, unless they could be proved to have broken local or maritime law it would be false imprisonment to detain them against their will.
Abolitionist Charles Sumner argued that the slaves "became free men when taken, by the voluntary action of their owners, beyond the jurisdiction of the slave states." Representative Joshua Reed Giddings of Ohio introduced a series of nine resolutions in the United States House of Representatives that argued that Virginia state law did not apply to slaves outside of Virginian waters, and that the U.S. federal government should not act to protect the rights of the slaveholders in this case. The resolutions provoked strong emotions. The House censured Giddings, who promptly resigned. The voters of Ohio reelected him soon afterwards.
The Creole revolt ignited an attack on slavery by northern abolitionists in 1842 (Schoenherr). In a New York Evangelist newspaper story, “The Hero Mutineers,” Madison Washington was named the ‘romantic hero.’ This was because Madison had shown sympathy towards the white crew members on the Creole. He had stopped his fellow slave mates from murdering them, and even dressed the sailors’ wounds after the revolt (Schoenherr). Eleven years later in 1852 the noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote a fictionalized version of the event and Washington's part in it, The Heroic Slave.
The issue roused strong feelings on both sides of the Atlantic and arose during the discussions that produced the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. According to a report in The Times, quoting the 'New York Courier and Inquirer', the American secretary of state raised it in a letter to Lord Ashburton: "The Creole case is presented in strong terms by Mr Webster in a letter (which, when published, will bring all the anti-slavery people about his ears)..." To this Lord Ashburton replied that as the case had effectively arisen after his departure from England he was ‘not empowered to treat upon the subject’. He reaffirmed the position that as slavery was no longer recognized under British law any foreign slave arriving in British possessions was automatically considered as free — as was also the case in those American states that did not recognize slavery. He did however promise that British officials in the West Indies would be given ‘directions’...'to do nothing in this respect when it can be properly avoided’ in the interests of ‘good neighbourhood’. [5]Among other declarations, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty also called for a final end to the slave trade on the high seas, to be enforced by both signatories.
After 15 years of negotiation and arbitration, the British government agreed to pay $110,000 to the owners of the ship's "cargo."
A similar slave rebellion and takeover of a ship took place on the high seas in 1839 on board the Amistad.
Officers:
Crew:
Passengers:
Leaders of the slave revolt:
Participants:[1]