Creole Revolt

In October 1841, Madison Washington and more than 100 other men were sold from Richmond’s slave jails for export to New Orleans. After leaving Hampton Roads, Washington rallied 18 other enslaved black men aboard the Creole, they freed themselves from their shackles and chains, seized the crew’s weapons, and forced the ship to set course for Nassau in the Bahamas. Their actions reflected knowledge that the mutiny should begin in international waters beyond United States jurisdiction and that reaching a British-governed port could bring freedom under Great Britain’s 1833 emancipation decree. When the ship arrived at Nassau, all of the enslaved people on board were set free despite protests from American slaveholders, including Robert Lumpkin, who may have owned many of the passengers. After a decade of dispute and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, a joint Anglo-American commission awarded $110,330 to the slave owners and closed the case.

Richmond, Virginia · United States