The Heroic Slave

by Frederick Douglass

  See another column for later news in this case.10

  1. According to the “Protest,” the Creole left Richmond on 25 October and Hampton Roads on the 30th. There is confusion in the documents about these dates.

  2. John Hewell, the agent for slaveowner Thomas McCargo on board the Creole, was the only white killed during the rebellion.

  3. In the Bahamas, and at the time a colony of Great Britain.

  4. Francis Cockburn (1780–1868) served as colonial governor of the Bahamas from 1837 to 1844. It was his decision to imprison Madison Washington and his eighteen fellow conspirators for possible charges of mutiny. In 1842, the rebels were released and granted their freedom after a British admiralty court ruled in their favor.

  5. The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 freed slaves in the British West Indies and nearly all the rest of the British Empire. In his famous ruling on the Somerset case of 1772, which affirmed that slavery was not supported by the laws of England, Lord Mansfield declared, “The air of England is too pure for any slave to breathe.”

  6. Two rebels died during the rebellion: George Grandy (from a head wound) and Adam Carney.

  7. The well-known slave rebellion of 1839 on the Spanish slave ship Amistad, which had been sailing out of Cuba with slaves taken from West Africa.

  8. The leaders of the Amistad rebellion were captured by the U.S. Navy in Long Island, New York, and were held in Connecticut jails while their cases were litigated. In March 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the rebels should be freed on the grounds that the international slave trade was illegal.

  9. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 resolved some of the U.S.-Canadian border questions, including extradition, that had contributed to tensions between the United States and Great Britain in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

  10. See the next selection in this volume.

  “The Creole Mutiny”

  “The Creole Mutiny” appeared in the same issue of the Colored American as “Another Amistad Case.” This article, too, drew on the New Orleans “Protest,” and was more or less a reprint of a piece that had first appeared in the New York Tribune. By printing the pieces together in the 25 December 1841 issue of their newspaper, the source of the text below, the editors of the Colored American provided their readers with the story of the Creole from the time of the rebellion at sea to the immediate aftermath in Nassau.

  The New Orleans Advertiser of the 8th1 contains the Protest of the Officers and crew of the brig Creole against the “winds and waves, and the dangers of the sea generally, but more especially against the insurrection of the nineteen slaves, and the illegal action of the British authorities at Nassau in regard to the remainder of the slaves on board said vessel.” The protest recounts all the particulars of the mutiny, which, as we have already given, we shall not repeat. Only nineteen of the slaves had any part in the mutiny; the rest were afraid of them and remained forward of the mainmast.

  The occurrences after reaching Nassau have not been so generally published. The officer, Gifford,2 called upon the Governor of the Bahamas who, at his request, sent a guard of twenty-four negro soldiers on the ship to keep the slaves and cargo on board. Capt. Fitzgeralt, who commanded the troops, told the slaves that they were very foolish in not killing all the whites on board.

  On the 10th of November, three magistrates came on board and examined all the white persons. The vessel was surrounded by boats filled with men armed with clubs. The nineteen were taken into custody, and the Attorney General3 said to the others, “My friends, you have been detained a short time on board the Creole for the purpose of ascertaining the individuals who were concerned in this mutiny and murder. They have been identified and will be detained, the rest of you are free and at liberty to go on shore and where you please.”

  Then addressing the prisoners, he said, “Men, there are nineteen of you who have been identified as having been engaged in the murder of Mr. Hewell, and in an attempt to kill the captain and others. You will be detained and lodged in prison for a time, in order that we may communicate with the English Government, and ascertain whether your trial shall take place here or elsewhere.”

  Mr. Gifford, the officer in command, protested against allowing the armed boats to come alongside and the slaves to go ashore. The Attorney General, in reply, told him that he had better make no objection, for if he did there might be bloodshed. He then stepped into his boat with one of the magistrates and withdrew into the stream. At a signal from another magistrate on board the Creole, the armed boats came along side and the slaves on board got into them. Three cheers were given and the boats went ashore, where thousands were waiting to receive them. The mutineers were taken ashore in a barge.

  On the 15th, the Attorney General wrote to the Captain of the Creole4 demanding the baggage of the passengers. Gifford, the commanding officer, replied that the slaves being themselves property had no baggage, and that moreover, he could land nothing without a permit from the Custom House and an order from the American Consul5—the Attorney got the permit, but not the order, and put an officer on board the Creole who took away such baggage and property as he chose to consider as belonging to the slaves. The master of the Creole made no resistance.

  The next day the Captain of the Creole proposed to sell his surplus provisions to pay his expenses. The collector of the Customs refused to allow them to be landed unless the Captain would enter the slaves as passengers. This was refused.

  A plan was formed by the American Consul, with Capt. Woodside of the American vessel Louisa, to rescue the Creole from the British officer and take her to Indian Key6 where was a U.S. vessel of war.

  “Accordingly,” says the Protest, “on the morning of the 12th of November, Captain Woodside, with his men in a boat, rowed to the Creole. Muskets and cutlasses were obtained from the brig Congress. Every effort had been made, in concert with the Consul, to purchase arms of the dealers at Nassau, but they all refused to sell. The arms were wrapped in the American flag and concealed in the bottom of the boat, as said boat approached the Creole. A negro, who had watched the loading of the boat, followed her, and gave the alarm to the British officer on the Creole. As the boat came up to the Creole, the officer called to them, ‘Keep off, or I will fire into you.’ His company of twenty-four men were then all standing on deck and drawn up in a line fronting Captain Woodside’s boat, and were ready with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets for an engagement. Captain Woodside was forced to withdraw, and the plan was prevented from being executed, the said British officer remaining in command of the Creole. The officers and crew of the Louisa and Congress, and the American Consul were warmly interested in the plan, and everything possible was done for its success.”

  On the day the slaves were liberated, the American Consul requested of the Governor a guard to protect the vessel until he could write to the Florida coast and put her in charge of a United States ship of war. This was refused. He then asked a guard until the crews of the American ships then in port could be collected and put on board the Creole, to take her to New Orleans. This was also refused. A proposition was then finally made to the Governor, that the American seamen then in port and in American vessels should go on board the Creole and be furnished with arms by the Governor to defend the vessel and cargo, (except the nineteen slaves who were to be left behind,) on her voyage to New Orleans. This also the Governor refused. On the 13th the Consul on behalf of the master of the brig Creole and all interested, proposed to the Governor to permit the nineteen mutineers to be sent to the United States on board the Creole for trial; and this too was refused.

  1. 8 December 1841.

  2. Zephaniah Gifford was the first mate on the Creole.

  3. The attorney general of Nassau was G. C. Anderson.

  4. Captain Robert Ensor was stabbed during the rebellion, and relinquished command of the Creole to Gifford.

  5. John Bacon.

  6. An island in the Florida Keys.

  Protest of the Officers and Crew of the America
n Brig Creole,

  bound from Richmond to New-Orleans, whose cargo of slaves mutinied on the 7th of Nov. 1841, off the Hole-in-the-Wall, murdered a passenger, wounded the Captain and others, and put into Nassau, N. P., where the authorities confined nineteen of the mutineers, and forcibly liberated nearly all the slaves.

  In August 1841, Frederick Douglass became a paid lecturer for William Lloyd Garrison’s Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and he would have initially followed reports about the Creole rebellion in Garrison’s antislavery newspaper, the Liberator. In late December, Garrison reprinted the “Protest,” which had first appeared in the 8 December 1841 issue of the New-Orleans Advertiser. The “Protest”—a deposition offered by five of the white officers and seamen of the Creole to a New Orleans notary public—was meant to underscore the barbarity of the black rebels and to make the case for reparations from the British (and for compensation from the ship’s insurers). But for antislavery leaders like Garrison and Douglass, what came across most forcefully in the whites’ account of the rebellion was the blacks’ heroic quest for freedom. In the longer, complete version of the “Protest,” the white deponents voice their frustration with the British and discuss their failed efforts, once in Nassau, to regain control of the Creole. This opening section, taken from the 31 December 1841 issue of the Liberator, offers a dramatic account of the uprising itself and of Madison Washington’s role as leader.

  By this public instrument of protest be it known that, on the second day of December, eighteen hundred and forty one; before me, William Young Lewis, notary public in and for the city of New-Orleans, duly commissioned and sworn:

  Personally came and appeared Zephaniah C. Gifford, acting master of the American brig called the Creole, of Richmond, who declared that the said vessel sailed from the port of Norfolk, in the state of Virginia, on the thirteenth day of October last past, laden with manufactured tobacco in boxes and slaves, then under command of Captain Robert Ensor, bound for the port of New-Orleans, in the State of Louisiana.

  That when about 130 miles to the North Northeast of the Hole-in-the-Wall,1 the slaves, or part thereof on board said vessel, rose on the officers, crew and passengers, killed one passenger, severely wounded the captain, this appearer,2 and a part of the crew; compelled said appearer, then first mate, to navigate said vessel to Nassau, in the Island of New-Providence, where she arrived, and a portion of the ringleaders of said insurrection were confined in prison, and the remainder of said slaves liberated by the British authorities of said Island: and required me, notary, to make record of the same, intending more at leisure to detail particulars.

  And this day again appeared the said acting master, together with Lucius Stevens, acting mate; William Devereux, cook and steward; Henry Speck, John Silvy, Jaques Lecomte, Francis Foxwell, and Blair Curtiss, seamen—all of, and belonging to said vessel, who, being severally sworn according to law, to declare the truth, did depose and say—

  That said vessel started as aforesaid, she was tight and strong, well manned, and provided in every respect, and equipped for carrying slaves:

  That said vessel left Richmond on the 25th day of October, 1841, with about 102 slaves on board:

  That about 90 of said slaves were shipped on board on the 20th of said month, of which 41 were shipped by Robert Lumkin, about 39 by John R. Hewell, 9 by Nathaniel Matthews, and 1 by Wm. Robinson; that from that time, about one of two per day were put on board by John R. Hewell, until about the said 25th day of October, so as to make the whole number of 135 slaves.

  The men and women slaves were divided. The men were all placed in the forward hold of the brig, except old Lewis and servant of Mr. Thomas McCargo, who staid in the cabin, as assistant servant, and the women in the hold aft, except six female servants, who were taken in the cabin. Between them was the cargo of the brig, consisting of boxes of tobacco.

  The slaves were permitted to go on deck, but the men were not allowed at night to go in the hold aft where the women were.

  On the 30th of October, the brig left Hampton Roads for New-Orleans.3 The slaves were all under the superintendence of William Henry Merritt, a passenger. John R. Hewell had the particular charge of the slaves of Thomas McCargo—Theophilus McCargo being considered too young and inexperienced4—and the general charge of the other slaves, all being under the master of the vessel. The slaves were all carefully watched. They were perfectly obedient and quiet, and showed no signs of mutiny and disturbance, until Sunday, the 7th of Nov. about 9 P.M. in lat. 27, 46, N. lon. 75 20 W.

  The captain, supposing that they were nearer Abaco than they were, had ordered the brig to be laid to, which was done. A good breeze was blowing at the time, and the sky was a little hazy, with trade clouds flying.

  Mr. Gifford was on watch. He was told by Elijah Morris,5 one of the slaves of Thomas McCargo, that one of the men had gone aft among the women. Mr. Gifford then called Mr. Merritt, who was in the cabin, and informed him of the fact. Mr. Merritt came up and went to the main hatch, which was the entrance to the after hold, and asked two or three of the slaves who were near, if any of the men were down in that hold, and he was informed that they were. Mr. Merritt then waited until Mr. Gifford procured a match, and then Mr. Merritt went down in the hold and lighted it. Mr. Gifford stood over the hatchway. On striking a light, Merritt found Madison Washington, a very large and strong slave of Thomas McCargo, standing at his back. Merritt said to Madison, ‘Is it possible that you are down here? You are the last man on board the brig I expected to find here.’ Madison replied, ‘Yes, sir, it is me,’ and instantly jumped to the hatchway, and got on deck, saying, ‘I am going up, I cannot stay here.’ He did this in spite of the resistance of Gifford and Merritt, who both tried to keep him back, and laid hold of him for that purpose.

  Madison ran forward, and Elijah Morris fired a pistol, the ball of which grazed the back part of Gifford’s head. Madison then shouted, ‘We have begun, and must go through. Rush, boys, rush aft, and we have them!’ and calling to the slaves below, he said—’Come up, every one of you! If you don’t lend a hand, I will kill you all, and throw you overboard.’

  Gifford now ran to the cabin, and aroused the Captain and others who were asleep, and the passangers, viz:—Theophilus McCargo, Jacob Miller,6 John R. Hewell; the second mate Lucius Stevens; the steward Wm. Devereux, a free colored man; and the slave Lewis, belonging to Mr. T. McCargo, acting as assistant steward.7 The slaves rushed aft, and surrounded the cabin. Merritt, hearing the report of the pistol, blew out his light and came from the hold. In doing this, he was caught by one of the negroes, who cried out, ‘Kill him! he is one of them;’ and the other slaves immediately rushed upon him. One of them attempted to strike Merritt with a handspike;8 but missed him, and knocked down the negro who was holding Merritt. Merritt then escaped to the cabin.

  Hewell, at this moment, jumped out of his berth, in his drawers, seized a musket, ran to the companion way of the cabin, and after some struggling fired. The negroes instantly wrenched the musket from Hewell’s hands. Hewell then seized a handspike, and defended himself from the slaves who pursued him. They thought he had another musket, and retreated a little. He advanced, and they fell upon him with clubs, handspikes and knives. He was knocked down and stabbed in not less than twenty places; but he rose, got away from them, and staggered back to the cabin, exclaiming, ‘I am dead—the negroes have killed me!’

  It is believed that no more than four or five of the negroes had knives. Ben Blacksmith,9 had the bowie knife he wrested from the captain, and stabbed Hewell with it. Madison had a jack knife, which appeared to have been taken from Hewell. Morris had a sheath knife, which he had taken from the forecastle, and which belonged to Henry Speck.10

  Gifford, after arousing the persons in the cabin, ran on deck, and up the main-rigging to the main-top. Merritt tried to get through the sky-light of the cabin, but could not, without being discovered. The negroes crowded around the sky-light outside, and the door of the cabin. Merritt then hid himself in
one of the berths, and three of the female house servants covered him with blankets, and sat on the edge of the berth, crying and praying. Theophilus McCargo dressed himself on the alarm being given. Hewell, after being wounded, staggered into said McCargo’s state-room, where he fell and expired in about half an hour. His body was thrown overboard by order of Madison, Ben Blacksmith and Elijah Morris. McCargo got his two pistols out, and fired one of them at the negroes, then in the cabin; the other missed fire, and McCargo having no ammunition, put his pistols away. After the affray, the sheath-knife of Henry Speck was found in Elijah Morris’s possession, and that of Foxwell in the possession of another negro, both covered with blood to the handles.

  Jacob Miller, William Devereux and the slave Lewis, on the alarm being given, concealed themselves in one of the state rooms. Elijah Morris called all who were concealed in the cabin to come forward, or they should have instant death. Miller came out first and said—’Here I am, do what you please.’ Devereux and Lewis next came out, and begged for their lives. Madison stood at the door, and ordered them to be sent to the hold. Stevens got up on the alarm being given and ran out. Saw Hewell in the affray, and waited in the cabin till Hewell died, and then secreted himself in one of the state rooms, and when they commenced the search for Merritt, made his escape through the cabin. They forced the musket they had reloaded, struck at him with knives and handspikes, and chased him into the rigging. He escaped to the fore-yard.