The Creole case was the result of a slave rebellion in 1841

The Creole case was the result of a slave rebellion in 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade. The trade flourished for a half century or longer. In 1841, a brig named Creole (also known as USS Creole) was transporting 135 slaves between Hampton Roads, Virginia and New Orleans. Led by Madison Washington, nineteen slaves on board the Creole revolted, and directed the ship to be taken to Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, then a British colony. During the slave revolt a white slave trader, John Hewell, was killed, and a slave died later of heavy wounds. According to international law, the slave revolt on this ship was not piracy, but a mutiny, and fell under the jurisdiction of the local authority where the crime occurred. The Creole case generated diplomatic tension between Great Britain and the United States, and political rumblings within the United States itself. The Creole revolt ignited the attack on slavery by northern abolitionists in 1842. In a New York Evangelist newspaper story, “The Hero Mutineers,” Madison Washington was named the ‘romantic hero.’ This is so because Madison showed his empathy towards the white crew members on the Creole. He stopped his fellow slave mates from murdering them, and even dressed the sailors’ wounds after the revolt. Secretary of State Daniel Webster stated that the slaves were legal properties and demanded their return. By this time, Great Britain had ended slavery in its nation and its colonies, so the British ignored the US claim. Representative Joshua Reed Giddings of Ohio introduced a series of nine resolutions in the United States House of Representatives that argued that Virginia state law did not apply to slaves outside of Virginian waters, and that the US federal government should not act to protect the rights of the slaveholders in this case. The resolutions provoked strong emotions. The House censured Giddings, who promptly resigned. The voters of Ohio reelected him soon afterwards.