Self-Emancipation on the High Seas

The Creole Slave Mutiny of 1841 in Legal and Diplomatic Perspective

William C. Gilmore

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Year: 2025
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780807185575
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: History

The mutiny by enslaved captives on board the U.S. brig Creole in the fall of 1841 was the most successful high-seas uprising in the history of the American coastal slave trade. It gave rise to a major diplomatic dispute with the British, resulted in extensive litigation in the courts of Louisiana, and was later the subject of an important international arbitration. Self-Emancipation on the High Seas considers these matters in detail and reflects on the significance of the mutiny and its place in the history of slavery and its abolition.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• TABLE OF CASES
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1. Flight to Freedom: IT’S BETTER IN THE BAHAMAS
• CHAPTER 2. The Mutineers in Nassau Jail: TRIAL, EXTRADITION, OR LIBERTY?
• CHAPTER 3. The Creole Incident in Anglo-American Diplomacy: THE WEBSTER–ASHBURTON NEGOTIATIONS
• CHAPTER 4. Capitalism and Slavery: THE SLAVERS’ QUEST FOR COMPENSATION
• CHAPTER 5. Concluding Reflections
• APPENDIX 1: Opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, 29 January 1842
• APPENDIX 2: Case of the Creole—Note of the Judgment of the Vice-Admiralty Court of the Bahamas, 16 April 1842
• APPENDIX 3: The Creole (USA v. Great Britain), Award by the Umpire, 9 January 1855
• APPENDIX 4: The Maria Luz (Peru v. Japan), Award of the Emperor of Russia, May 1875
• NOTES
• SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX
• Illustrations