In October of 1841 the brig Creole was transporting 135 slaves from Richmond and Hampton Roads to New Orleans for sale. While off the coast of the Bahamas, a group of 19 slaves took control of the ship, killing one person and injuring another. The mutineers directed the ship to Nassau where the U.S. Consul attempted to safeguard the slave status of the “cargo” and return it to sea, but since slavery was illegal in British possessions by then, the Governor instead deemed them passengers. A group of local black citizens surrounded the brig to prevent it from sailing and provided the passengers their transportation to freedom. In addition, the original mutineers were freed after the Bahamian court determined that they had the right to use force to escape detention from illegal slavery. The Brig Creole case inspired the classic 1852 Frederick Douglass novella “The Heroic Slave,” his only work of published fiction. For more information, see this article. Disbound; 46 pages.

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Condition: B+

Occasional light toning and faint scattered foxing.