The Creole Rebellion: One of the Most Successful Slave Revolts in History.
When it comes to how the United States of America portrays slavery it depicts that slaves were very docile and didn’t fight back. However, this was not the case and there were numerous slave rebellions, but they are not usually taught in school or displayed on TV/movies. Madison Washington an American slave who started a slave revolt in 1841 on board the brig Creole. The ship was transporting over 130 slaves from Virginia to New Orleans to sell.
The Creole was a domestic ship but the Black men and women on board still suffered conditions such as international slave ships i.e. indiscriminate cruelty, sexual abuse, physical deprivation etc.
Then on the night of November 7, 1841, Washington led over a dozen slaves into rebellion against the slave traders on board. The slaves were kept in a forward hold and when a grate was released Washington overtook the deck. They killed one of the slave traders and wounded the crew. The slaves led by Washington took control of the ship and commanded that it be sailed to Nassau, which at the time was under British control (slavery had been abolished in Great Britain since 1839).
When the Americans found out about the revolt they protested that the slaves should be returned, but the British declared the slaves were now free under their law and refused to return them. However, the British took Washington and his conspirators into custody, because they killed the slave trader. Therefore, the governor of the Bahamas could not let the men go free and Madison Washington and his comrades in the revolt were detained while the rest were allowed to live as free people.
Then in April of 1842, a special session of the Admiralty Court heard the case, ruled in favor of the men, and freed them.
The remaining 116 slaves were given their freedom immediately, however, five had chosen to remain on the ship and return to be slaves in the United States. 128 slaves were freed due to this rebellion and considered to be the most successful slave revolt in United States history.
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