The unwilling passengers of the U.S. brigantine…
November 1841 CE
The unwilling passengers of the U.S. brigantine Creole—one hundred and thirty-four enslaved blacks being shipped from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to New Orleans—seize the vessel in November 1841.
One white crewman is killed in the mutiny, led by Madison Washington, an African-American.
The mutineers then sail the ship to the British port of Nassau in the Bahamas, where the British refuse to hand over the ship or the mutineers, despite angry protests by the owners and American Southerners.
Ignoring the precedent recently set by the case of the Amistad Mutiny, U.S. secretary of state Daniel Webster demands the return of the mutineers because they are the property of U.S. citizens.
By British law, all the formerly enslaved men are freed except those who had actually participated in the mutiny; these are charged with murder and imprisoned. (In 1855, after the case is finally settled between the two countries, Britain will award $110,330 to the U.S. in compensation for lost slave property.)
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