 On this day in 1841, a shipboard rebellion led to 128 enslaved people gaining their freedom in the Bahamas. Show The Creole case made headlines in its own time, but despite being the most successful revolt of enslaved people in U.S. history, it’s less well known today. The Creole was transporting 135 enslaved people from Richmond, Virginia to the slave markets in New Orleans. On November 7, 1841, 18 of the slaves attacked the crew, killing one of the slave traders aboard and wounding the ship’s captain, Robert Ensor. "With great coolness and presence of mind" they gathered up all the ship's weapons and the documents related to their enslavement, writes Michael Paul Williams for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. After some debate about where they should now go on the ship, writes BlackPast.org, they settled on the British colony of the Bahamas, forcing one of the crew members to navigate for them. After landing in the Bahamas, because slavery was illegal in the British colonies, the Bahamians considered the majority of the enslaved people on the ship free. However, the remaining people who had been involved in overtaking the ship were held and charged with mutiny–at the request of the American consulate. Among those people was Madison Washington, an enslaved cook who had previously escaped to Canada, writes BlackPast.org. He “was later captured and sold when he returned to Virginia in search of his wife Susan.” The website writes:
Then-Secretary of State Daniel Webster was furious, writes Williams: he "demanded the insurrectionists' return for 'mutiny and murder.'" But there wasn't much he could do. Britain had outlawed slavery in its colonies in 1833, writes scholar Walter Johnson, and the U.S. and Britain didn't have a treaty explaning if or how they would respect each other's laws. So the people went free. "The exploit of the slaves under the intrepid Madison Washington is a guarantee of what can be done by colored Americans in a just cause," one 1850 account said, according to Williams, "and foreshadows that a brighter day for slaves is at hand." Recommended Videos What happened to the slaves on the Creole?The United Kingdom had abolished the slave trade with the in 1807, and the practise 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.
What happened to the slaves once they arrived in the Caribbean?Once they arrived in the Caribbean islands, the Africans were prepared for sale. They were washed and their skin was oiled. Finally they were sold to local buyers. Often parents were separated from children, and husbands from wives.
Who freed the slaves in the Bahamas?In 1807, the British abolished the slave trade. Throughout the 19th century, close to 7000 Africans were resettled in the Bahamas after being freed from slave ships by the Royal Navy, which intercepted the trade, in the Bahamian islands. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire on 1 August 1834.
What caused the Creole case?The Creole Case was the result of an American slave revolt in November 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade. As a consequence of the revolt, 128 enslaved people won their freedom in the Bahamas, then a British possession.
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What happened to the 135 enslaved persons who in 1841 seized the ship the Creole and sailed to Nassau in search of freedom?
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