#creolemutiny

The Heroic Slave: Frederick Douglass' Novella of the Creole Mutiny

Abolitionist author, orator and statesman Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) is well-known for his speeches, autobiography, and other works addressing the issue of slavery in the United States in the 19th century, but, in 1853, he wrote his only work of fiction – the novella The Heroic Slave – based on the Creole Mutiny/Creole Rebellion of 1841 and its leader, Madison Washington.

Douglass was approached by the British abolitionist Julia Griffiths (1811-1895), whom he had met in England, then a founder of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, and was asked to write a short story for an anthology she was preparing, Autographs of Freedom, which would present fictional works on the institution of slavery and, hopefully, reach a large audience in the same way that Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) recently had.

The Heroic Slave was published in 1853 by John P. Jewett and Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and, while it never attained the commercial or critical success of Uncle Tom's Cabin, it enjoyed respectable sales and, among the abolitionist community at least, was a bestseller.

Douglass could have chosen any event to deal with in his piece of historical fiction, but he chose the Creole Mutiny, as this event was of particular interest to him and had formed the basis of several speeches, lectures, and other works since 1841. The historical figure of Madison Washington, about whom almost nothing is known outside of the narrative of the Creole Mutiny, offered Douglass the opportunity to create a character, in the words of scholar David W. Blight, "of transformative eloquence as well as action" (250) and present the rebel slave leader to a White audience not only as a noble hero but also as a warning that there were many more "Madison Washingtons" among the slave population and, sooner or later, they would act just as he had done on board the Creole, though most likely with far more bloodshed.

The Creole Mutiny

The Creole Mutiny/Creole Rebellion was an insurrection led by Madison Washington on 7 November 1841 aboard the slave ship Creole, bound from Richmond, Virginia, to the slave markets of New Orleans, Louisiana. Washington had escaped slavery in Virginia in 1839 but returned in 1841 to free his wife, Susan, who was held on the same plantation he had been. Washington was recognized before he could locate Susan, re-enslaved, and sold to one Thomas McCargo of Richmond, a slave trader who was planning on selling a large number of slaves in New Orleans.

Washington was among the 135 enslaved men, women, and children aboard the Creole and, it is thought, prepared to take the ship before he ever set foot on board. He was acquainted with the story of the Amistad Seizure of 1839 in which illegally kidnapped Africans successfully took over the schooner La Amistad and eventually won their freedom as well as with the wreck of the Hermosa off the British territory of the Bahamas in 1840, which resulted in all the slaves on board freed by British authorities, as Great Britain had abolished slavery by this time.

Washington and 18 others took the Creole, resulting in the death of only one White man – the slave trader William Henry Merritt – and had the ship redirected to the port at Nassau in the Bahamas, where all the slaves were freed except the 19 who had taken part in the mutiny. These 19, including Washington, were finally also freed in April 1842. Washington and his wife, who was also aboard the Creole, then presumably began their new life as free people in the Bahamas and vanished from the historical record.

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Creole Mutiny: The Most Successful Slave Revolt in US History

The Creole Mutiny/Creole Rebellion (1841) was an insurrection aboard the brig Creole on 7 November 1841 during which 19 enslaved men (of the 135 men, women, and children held as slaves on board), led by Madison Washington, took the ship by force. The Creole had been sailing from Virginia to the slave markets in New Orleans, but, after its seizure by Washington and his men, it was redirected to the British territory of the Bahamas, where, since Britain had by this time abolished slavery, they were set free.

The Creole Mutiny/Creole Rebellion is considered the most successful slave revolt in US history, but it has been overshadowed by the more widely known Amistad Seizure of 1839 and the famous court case that followed. The Amistad Seizure was the direct inspiration for the Creole Mutiny, as it is well-established that Madison Washington knew the details of that event and was a great admirer of the Amistad rebel leader Sengbe Pieh (better known as Joseph Cinque). Since he already had the paradigm of the Amistad Seizure in mind prior to the Creole setting sail for New Orleans, it is thought that Washington planned his insurrection while still confined in the Virginia slave pens, chose the men he knew he could trust, and, when the right moment presented itself, was prepared to strike.

Although the US government petitioned for the return of the 130 slaves (five decided to remain on board and were later sold as slaves in New Orleans), they were considered free by the British government and established themselves in the Bahamas and Jamaica.

Years later, the United Kingdom financially compensated the United States for the slaves, but this did nothing to quell the outrage of the US government and pro-slavery factions in 1841 who saw the success of the Creole Mutiny – which had depended significantly on Britain upholding their anti-slavery laws – as a direct threat to the institution of slavery in the USA. Like the Amistad Seizure and John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859), the Creole Mutiny further increased tensions between the slave states and free states in the years leading up to the American Civil War.

The Amistad, Hermosa & Madison Washington

The schooner La Amistad had been seized by Africans, led by Sengbe Pieh (Joseph Cinque), off the coast of Cuba in July 1839. The 53 Africans on board had been illegally kidnapped in West Africa, smuggled to Havana, Cuba, and were to be sold in Puerto Principe, Cuba.

After taking control of the ship, Cinque ordered the two owners, Juan Ruiz and Pedro Montes, to return them to Africa, but, secretly, the two steered the ship toward the United States, where they hoped it would be taken, they would be rescued, and their 'property' would be returned to them. The ship was, in fact, taken by US authorities off New York and towed to Connecticut but, after the intervention of the local abolitionists, it was found that the Africans were not slaves, but free people held illegally against their will, and through a series of trials, culminating in a hearing before the US Supreme Court, the Africans were freed, eventually leaving on their return to Africa in 1841.

The Hermosa was another schooner, owned by US slavers, that was transporting 38 slaves from Richmond, Virginia, to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1840 when it was blown off course and wrecked on the rocks of the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. The ship was salvaged and towed to Nassau, and, as the Bahamas were British territory, and the United Kingdom had abolished slavery by this time, all 38 slaves were given their freedom.

Madison Washington knew about both of these events, as noted by scholar Bruce Chadwick:

knew of the Hermosa case…and from Underground Railroad leaders, he likely heard that British ships that captured slave transports had been freeing the slaves and sending them to the Bahamas. Most of all, he learned all about the 1839 Amistad mutiny. He visited abolitionist Robert Purvis, who had just received a portrait of Cinque, the leader of the Amistad uprising. Purvis told him the story of the insurrection on the ship, the trial in American courts, and the verdict that set all the mutineers free.

(15)

At the time Washington learned of the Amistad and Hermosa cases, he most likely never thought he would actually need the information. He had escaped slavery and fled to Canada and would have had no reason to concern himself with ship seizures or wrecks in the Bahamas, but that was before he returned to the United States to try to free his wife.

Madison Washington was born a slave in Virginia, married a woman named Susan on the same plantation, and, in 1839, with the help of the Underground Railroad, escaped. He was unable to bring his wife with him, however, and, upon finally arriving in Canada, found it difficult to enjoy his freedom knowing his wife remained enslaved. Chadwick writes:

Madison Washington had no fear of dying. He was dead already, he believed. He had escaped from his Virginia plantation a year earlier but was unable to free his wife, Susan…Washington was safe and would have stayed there, safe and free, if he had not missed his wife so desperately. He saved his money and sneaked back to Virginia to rescue his wife and bring her back to Canada with him.

(9)

The abolitionists who had helped him during his time in Canada warned him not to return to the United States and certainly not to go back to Virginia, but he felt he had no choice. Freedom in Canada was meaningless without his wife.

He arrived back on the plantation at night during a slave gathering of cornhusking around a fire and stayed in the shadows listening. He was able to determine that his wife was still on the plantation and moved off to find her. At this point, he was recognized by an overseer, captured, and thrown into a slave pen to await sale. A few weeks later, he was sold to Mr. Thomas McCargo, a slave agent of Richmond, Virginia.

Washington was transferred to the slave pen near the docks in Richmond and, shortly afterwards, was led aboard the Creole, bound for the slave markets of New Orleans.

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