Creole Slave Case

CREOLE SLAVE CASE

CREOLE SLAVE CASE. On 7 November 1841 Madison Washington and eighteen of the 135 slaves aboard the Creole rose up against the white crew on its voyage from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to New Orleans. They succeeded in killing the captain and redirecting the ship to the British port of Nassau in the Bahamas where upon arrival they were all set free. In the wake of their success, Washington and his followers became known as the "immortal nineteen." Incensed by British "tyranny," Secretary of State Daniel Webster used racist language to compare the slaves to "opium" and threatened military action if they were not surrendered. The British resisted until 1855 when an Anglo-American claims commission granted an indemnity of $110,330 to the U.S. government.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bernier, Celeste-Marie. "'Arms Like Polished Iron:' Representing the Body of the Slave in Versions of a Slave Ship Revolt." Slavery and Abolition 23.2 (2002): 91–106.

Jervey, Edward D., and C. Harold Huber. "The Creole Affair." Journal of Negro History 65.3 (Summer 1980): 196–211.

Jones, Howard. "The Peculiar Institution and National Honor: The Case of the Creole Slave Revolt." Civil War History 21 (March 1975): 28–50.

Celeste-Marie Bernier

See also Slave Insurrections .