Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information Rebellious Passage In late October 1841, the Creole left Richmond with 139 slaves bound for New Orleans. It arrived five weeks later minus the Captain, one passenger, and most of the captives. Nineteen rebels had seized the US slave ship en route and steered it to the British Bahamas where the slaves gained their liberty. Drawing upon a sweeping array of previously unexamined state, federal, and British colonial sources, Rebellious Passage examines the neglected maritime dimensions of the extensive US slave trade and slave revolt. The focus on south-to-south self- emancipators at sea differs from the familiar narrative of south-to- north fugitive slaves over land. Moreover, a broader hemispheric framework of clashing slavery and antislavery empires replaces an emphasis on US antebellum sectional rivalry. Written with verve and commitment, Rebellious Passage chronicles the first comprehensive history of the ship revolt, its consequences, and its relevance to global modern slavery. Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie is Professor of History at Howard University and author of Freedpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860-1900; Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World; and Freedom’s Seekers: Essays on Comparative Emancipation. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information Rebellious Passage The Creole Revolt and America’s Coastal Slave Trade JEFFREY R. KERR-RITCHIE Howard University, Washington DC © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information University Printing House, Cambridge cb2 8bs, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, ny 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108476249 doi: 10.1017/9781108616324 © Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie 2019 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2019 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data names: Kerr-Ritchie, Jeffrey R., author. title: Rebellious passage : the Creole revolt and America’s coastal slave trade / Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie. description: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references. identifiers: lccn 2018043005| isbn 9781108476249 (hardback : alk. paper) | isbn 9781108700009 (paperback : alk. paper) subjects: lcsh: Creole (Brig) | Slave insurrections – United States – History – 19th century. | Mutiny – United States – History – 19th century. | Slaves – Emancipation – Bahamas – History – 19th century. | Slave trade – United States – History – 19th century. | Slave trade – Atlantic Coast (U.S.) – History – 19th century. classification: lcc e447 .k47 2019 | ddc 306.3/6209730904–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018043005 isbn 978-1-108-47624-9 Hardback isbn 978-1-108-70000-9 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information To the Nineteen Horace Beverley Walter Brown George Burton Richard Butler Adam Carney Pompey Garrison George Grandy Williams Jenkins Benjamin Johnson Philip Jones Robert Lumpkins Elijah Morris George Portlock Doctor Ruffin Peter Smallwood Warner Smith Addison Tyler Madison Washington America Woodis © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information Contents List of Figures page ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xxvi Abbreviations xxix 1 Eagle versus Lion 1 2 The Coastal Passage 37 3 “Several Cases” 66 4 “Engaged in the Business Ever Since She Was Constructed” 77 5 “The Negroes Have Risen” 99 6 “Their Determination to Quit the Vessel” 125 7 “Old Neighbors” 151 8 “A New State of Things” 171 9 “Property Rights” versus “Rights of Man” 188 10 Causa Proxima, Non Remota, Spectatur 214 11 “Full and Final Settlement” 250 Epilogue 268 Appendix 1: Captives aboard the Enterprise, March 1835 289 Appendix 2: Manifest of the Hermosa, October 10, 1840 292 Appendix 3: Creole’s Captives and Shippers, October 20 to 28, 1841 295 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information viii Contents Appendix 4: Richmond Citizens’ Ten Resolutions, January 27, 1842 303 Appendix 5: Joshua Giddings’s Nine Resolutions, March 21, 1842 305 Bibliography 307 Index 332 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information Figures 2.1 America’s Coastal Passage, 1807–1864. page 43 2.2 Ship manifest for the Hunter, Norfolk, October 17, 1835. 52 3.1 Detail of ship manifest for the Hermosa, Richmond, October 10, 1840. 75 4.1 Ship manifest for the Creole, Richmond, March 10, 1841. 81 4.2 Thomas McCargo’s insurance contract, New Orleans, November 15, 1841. 86 4.3 John Bacon’s list of rebels, Nassau, Bahamas, November 30, 1841. 96 5.1 Captain Ensor’s testimony, Nassau, Bahamas, November 18, 1841. 110 6.1 The Creole’s rebellious passage, November 1841. 129 6.2 Governor Cockburn’s letter on the ship revolt, Nassau, November 17, 1841. 135 7.1 The public library that was once a jail, Nassau. 157 7.2 Plan of the jail in Nassau, 1842. 158 7.3 Plan of Gambier Village, New Providence Island, Bahamas, n.d. 165 7.4 Elijah Morris’s land grant, Gambier village, August 23, 1879. 166 9.1 Dr. Channing’s Last Address, Lenox, Massachusetts, August 1, 1842. 201 10.1 Africans thrown overboard from a Brazilian slave ship, 1832. 221 E.1 Ship manifest for the Creole, Richmond, March 29, 1842. 271 E.2 Detail of John Hagan’s will, New Orleans, June 9, 1856. 278 E.3 Judah Benjamin’s tombstone, Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris. 283 E.4 Alexander Morris’s land grant, Adelaide Village, New Providence Island, Bahamas, November 26, 1898. 287 ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information Preface One warm evening in late 1879, sexagenarian Elijah Morris sat on his porch in Gambier Village just outside the large town of Nassau in the Bahamas. Behind him stood a thatched roof cottage on ten acres of land for which he had recently purchased the deed. In front was West Bay Road hugging the northern end of New Providence. Ahead of him, Morris could see and hear the waves crashing from the northern Caribbean Sea. Far beyond the eye lay the shoreline of the southern United States where he had been born as somebody else’s property. As he gazed at the sunbeams of the setting sun playing in the waves, he reflected on his remarkable life’s journey. He had been born enslaved in Virginia in 1818. In October 1841, he lay in a slave trader’s pen in Richmond awaiting forced transportation to the Deep South through the bustling port of New Orleans. There he encountered other captives dissatisfied with their condition. With scores of other captives he was loaded onto a ship adorned with a figurehead in the shape of a lady. In early November, Morris along with eighteen other captives rose up, seized the slave ship, and directed it toward the Bahamas. Controlled by the British, this island had a reputation for liberating slaves. After several days of being kept aboard in Nassau harbor, the captives were allowed to go free. Morris recalled fondly that this liberation was undertaken by captives who walked to freedom assisted by hundreds of local Bahamians who had surrounded the slave ship and ferried its newly freed people to the mainland. This act of racial solidarity remained etched in his memory. He and his fellow conspirators had been lodged in the local jail because of the death of one of the white overseers and serious injuries to the ship’s officers. Morris and his fellow rebels were eventually released after xi © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-47624-9 — Rebellious Passage Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie Frontmatter More Information