The Creole Mutiny, sometimes called the Creole case, was a slave revolt aboard the American slave ship Creole in November 1841, when the brig was seized by the 128 slaves who were aboard the ship when it reached Nassau in the British colony of the Bahamas, where slavery had been abolished. The brig was transporting enslaved people as part of the coastwise slave trade in the American South. It has been described as “the most successful [antebellum] slave revolt in US history.” Two died in the revolt, an enslaved person and a member of the crew.
The United Kingdom had abolished the slave trade with the Slave Trade Act in 1807, and the practice of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. Accordingly, British officials in the Bahamas ruled that the enslaved people on Creole were freed after their arrival in Nassau, if they chose to stay. Nineteen men who were identified as being responsible for the revolt were imprisoned on charges of mutiny; an Admiralty Court hearing in April 1842 ruled that the men had been illegally held captive as slaves and had the right to use force to gain freedom.
When the Creole reached New Orleans in December 1841 with three enslaved women and two enslaved children aboard (who had refused to leave the ship), Southerners were outraged about the loss of property; calls for compensation ensued. Relations between the United States and Britain were strained for a time. The incident occurred during negotiations for the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842 but was not directly addressed. The parties settled on seven crimes qualifying for extradition in the treaty, but they did not include slave revolts. Eventually claims for losses of slaves from Creole and two other American ships transporting enslaved persons were repaid to their owners, along with other claims dating to 1814, in a treaty of 1853 between the United States and Britain, for which an arbitration commission awarded settlements in 1855 against each nation.
Background and revolt In the fall of 1841, the American brig Creole, owned by Johnson and Eperson of Richmond, Virginia, was transporting 135 enslaved African-Americans for sale in New Orleans, a major market in the American South for slaves. 103 of those who would be transported on Creole were being kept in slave pens at Richmond, while another 32 were purchased at Hampton Roads for transport. Most of the slaves were owned by Johnson and Eperson. 26 people were owned by Thomas McCargo, who operated as a slave trader and was one of the passengers on board. While the United States government had abolished the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, it permitted the domestic trading of slaves among the states which kept slavery legalized; a "coastwise slave trade" had sprung up in the 19th century, transporting enslaved African-Americans among the American South. Creole also carried tobacco, a crew of ten, the captain's wife, daughter and niece; four white passengers, including slave traders; and eight enslaved black servants, for a total of 160 individuals on board.Jervey, Edward D. and Huber, C. Harold. "The Creole Affair", The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Summer 1980), pp. 196–211, accessed 8 April 2013
Madison Washington, the leader of the revolt, had been born into slavery but managed to escape to Canada. However, he was forced back into slavery after returning to Virginia to look for his wife, who was among those being transported to New Orleans to be sold as slaves.R. Edward Lee, "Madison Washington, Slave Mutineer," Blacfax, Winter/Spring 1998, Vol. 8 Issue 36, p. 8 The enslaved persons were kept in the forward hold, but Washington managed to gain access to the deck after one of the crew had lifted the grate. On November 7, 1841, Washington and eighteen other enslaved men rebelled; they overpowered the crew and killed John R. Hewell, one of the slave traders, with a knife. The crew and passengers had only one gun among them - which they never used. The captain, who was wounded, joined two of the crew who had gone up into the rigging to escape the fighting. One of the enslaved persons was badly wounded and later died. Some other members of the crew were wounded but all survived.
The enslaved people demanded that plantation overseer William Merritt navigate the ship for them, which he promised to do. They first demanded that the ship be taken to Liberia, which the American Colonization Society had established as a colony for freed African-Americans in West Africa. Merritt informed them that the voyage was impossible as the ship did not have enough food or water for the journey. Another leader of the revolt, Ben Blacksmith, said they should be taken to the British West Indies, as he knew the enslaved people from the Hermosa had gained their freedom there the previous year.
Arrival in Nassau On November 9, 1841, the Creole reached Nassau, where it was boarded by the harbor pilot and his crew, all local black Bahamians.The Times, January 21, 1842, p. 3 They told the enslaved people who had been held on board, under Bahamian colonial law, they were free. The crew advised them to go ashore at once. The Bahamian Quarantine Officer came aboard. As the captain Robert Ensor was badly wounded, the officer took First Mate Zephaniah Gifford to the American consulate to inform the American consul of the events which had transpired. At the consul's request, the governor of the Bahamas ordered a group of soldiers to board the Creole to prevent the escape of the men implicated in Hewell's death. Fearing the British authorities would attempt to free the enslaved people being transported on Creole as per their laws, the American consul attempted to organize a group of American sailors on the island to take back control of the ship. He intended to have them sail the ship out of British jurisdiction with the enslaved people still aboard. The group of American sailors approached the ship on November 12, intending to sail it away, but they were foiled by a Bahamian who shouted a warning to the officer of the soldiers aboard the Creole. He threatened to order his men to fire into the boat of the Americans so they withdrew.
After an investigation by magistrates, on Friday, 13 November 1841, the Bahamian Attorney-General went aboard. He told the nineteen rebels that they would be imprisoned. He informed the remainder of the enslaved people of their new circumstances: "You are free, and at liberty to go onshore, and wherever you please." A fleet of small boats manned by locals, who until then had surrounded the brig at a distance, immediately came forward. The Attorney-General warned the people against boarding the Creole, but said they could provide passage to the enslaved persons who wished to go ashore. Most did so, although three women, a young girl and boy stayed in hiding on board. They eventually sailed with the ship to New Orleans and were sold as slaves. The New Providence authorities arranged for a ship bound for Jamaica, also a British colony, to take the passengers to the island for free, and announced it in the local newspaper. Numerous enslaved people from the Creole left for Jamaica aboard it. After the Bahamian colonial government arrested the conspirators, the United States government dropped its claims for all the enslaved people to be returned to its custody. There was no extradition treaty at the time between Britain and the United States governing such circumstances.
The British authorities determined that the people who had been enslaved had not committed any breach of British or maritime law. As under British law they were free men, they were considered to have the right to use force to escape the detention of illegal enslavement.The Times, February 16, 1842, p. 13: Quote: "In answer to an inquiry of Lord BROUGHAM, Lord ABERDEEN stated that orders had been sent out to the Governor of the Bahamas to liberate the 19 enslaved persons now under constraint at Nassau for the mutiny and murder on board that vessel, unless (which is not to be apprehended) there were any local laws which justified or demanded a contrary course." The Admiralty Court in Nassau held a special session in April to consider a charge of piracy against the men implicated in the mutiny. Ruling that their action was not piracy, the Court ordered the 17 men (two had died in the interim) to be released on April 16, 1842.The Times, May 18, 1842, p. 3 As a total of 128 people who had been held as slaves gained their freedom, the case has been described as the "most successful slave revolt in US history".
The Creole had departed months before for the United States, reaching its original destination of New Orleans on December 2, 1841. Five people were still aboard, outraging planters and politicians who learned that the remaining people had been freed from slavery by the British authorities. The case attracted national attention in the United States and provoked a diplomatic controversy. In Boston in 1842, abolitionist William E. Channing published a pamphlet, "The Duty of the Free States or Remarks Suggested by the Case of the 'Creole'", to refute claims by Southern politicians that the human property of American slave owners should be protected in foreign ports."Slaves Commandeer the Creole", Slavery: Flights to Freedom, African-American Odyssey: February 5 through May 2, 1998; Library of Congress, accessed <14 February 2014 The issue was also under discussion due to negotiations over the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which was ratified with the United Kingdom that year. Less than a year later, the Creole was wrecked in a violent storm while in harbor at Funchal, Madeira.The Times, November 22, 1842, p. 4
Political consequences The Creole case generated diplomatic tension between the United Kingdom and the United States and caused political rumblings within the United States. Southerners were outraged to have lost "property" in another instance of British authorities freeing the enslaved persons from American ships that had gone into their ports in the Caribbean. The John Tyler administration supported Southerners in seeking the return of the enslaved people to captivity.
Secretary of State Daniel Webster stated the US position to the United Kingdom that the enslaved people were legal property of US citizens and demanded their return.
The United Kingdom had abolished slavery effective August 1834, and it rejected the U.S. claim. It had advised all nations that under its law, ships that went into its ports would forfeit any people who were enslaved on board. The British government said that Nassau was a British territory where British law must be applied. Under it, the 'slaves' aboard the Creole were to be considered free passengers. Accordingly, unless they could be proved to have broken local or maritime law, it would be false imprisonment to hold them against their will.
The abolitionist Charles Sumner argued that enslaved people "became free men when taken, by the voluntary action of their owners, beyond the jurisdiction of the slave states." In March 1842 US Representative Joshua Reed Giddings of Ohio introduced a series of nine resolutions on this topic, arguing against the federal government acting on behalf of the slaveholders. He argued that Virginia state law did not apply to enslaved persons who were outside Virginian waters, the federal government had no part in it, and the coastwise slave trade was unconstitutional, as enslaved people were beyond state law on the high seas, and thus free people.