In their concise narrative and analysis...George and Willene Hendrick disentangle myth from meaning and contextualize the revolt.
Fascinating...compelling history.
...The book is an amazing feat of research.
...A lively read that will hopefully encourage futher consideration of the late antebellum slave trade among serious students of history.
…A valuable tool for some original resarch in pointing the reader to the excellent sources in its bibliography and notes.
Fascinating...compelling history.
The most accurate story to date...meticulous research and attention to the historical landscape.
...This handsome and well-written volume…spin[s] a tale of unrequited love and a quest for freedom...
The Journal Of Southern History
...A compelling, fascinating retelling...
The Creole Mutiny is a compelling, fascinating retelling of a lesser-known story of slave revolt...
...This handsome and well-written volume...spin[s] a tale of unrequited love and a quest for freedom...
The Journal of Southern History
On the evening of November 7, 1841, 39 slaves on the brig Creole, en route from Richmond, Va., to New Orleans, revolted and seized the ship from its white crew. The 39, "property" of a single owner, killed a guard and wounded the captain and two others. They forced the brig to be sailed into Nassau harbor in the Bahamas, where the British government, which had outlawed slavery in 1834, offered freedom to the slaves, perhaps 139 in all (most from other "owners"), on board. The British action touched off a wave of protest in America, but the British refused to back down. Eventually, the slave owners were reimbursed more than $110,000 by the Anglo-American Claims Commission. While the case is well-known to scholars, the Hendricks (On the Illinois Frontier) return to primary source material, including the insurance claims made by the slaveholders, to reconstruct the mutiny. Of the 39 participants, the names of leader Madison Washington and 18 others are known, but their testimony either was not recorded or does not survive. In addition to detailing conditions on typical slave ships, the Hendricks include accounts of Madison Washington's earlier escape and recapture when he tried to rescue his wife, and ways in which Washington inspired Frederick Douglass and Lydia Maria Child, among others (shown among the 24 b&w illus.). The result is a concise account of a lesser-known but crucial moment in the history of slavery. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Two independent scholars attempt with only moderate success to flesh out the skeletal story of an 1841 mutiny by slaves aboard a ship headed from Richmond to New Orleans. The authors set themselves a daunting task: to reconstruct from minimal documentary evidence both the life of Madison Washington, leader of the revolt, and the mutiny itself. But at nearly every crucial moment they are forced to acknowledge that little or nothing is known, or to ask questions that simply make the same point. "Did Madison Washington arrive in Richmond in a coffle?" they ask. "How did the slaves happen to have a gun?" they wonder. With so little supporting material, they decided to tell similar stories about which more is known and imply that the cases of Madison Washington and the Creole must have been similar. The result is a collection of excerpts from slave narratives, histories of the period, and accounts of other slave revolts. (Melville’s "Benito Cereno" earns some space here.) Even the illustrations are sometimes a stretch: one shows another slave ship, while the caption indicates that the Creole resembled it neither in size nor rigging. Washington’s story is an engaging one nonetheless. He initially escaped into Canada, then took the Underground Railroad in reverse in a failed attempt to rescue his wife. He was recaptured and put aboard the Creole; he and 18 others took over the vessel, killed one officer, and sailed to Nassau in the Bahamas. British authorities there eventually freed them all, and Washington vanished from history. So the volume must suffice as a set of suppositions accompanied by a primer about the slave trade and the unspeakable conditions endured by its victims. The facts mightfill a scholarly article, the story could form a film or novel, the scholarship would make a compelling memoir. But there isn’t enough detail for the conventional history essayed here. (24 b&w illustrations)
...A compelling, fascinating retelling...
Sir Read Alot Book Review
...This handsome and well-written volume…spin[s] a tale of unrequited love and a quest for freedom...
Journal of Southern History
...This handsome and well-written volume…spin[s] a tale of unrequited love and a quest for freedom...
Journal Of Southern History
