Creole Case - Political Consequences

Political Consequences

The Creole case generated diplomatic tension between Great Britain and the United States, and political rumblings within the United States itself.

Secretary of State Daniel Webster stated that the slaves were legal properties and demanded their return. By this time however Great Britain had ended slavery in its nation and its colonies, so the U.S. claim was rejected on the grounds that, Nassau being British territory, British law must be applied, and under it the 'slaves' aboard the Creole were to be considered passengers. Accordingly, unless they could be proved to have broken local or maritime law it would be false imprisonment to detain them against their will.

Abolitionist Charles Sumner argued that the slaves "became free men when taken, by the voluntary action of their owners, beyond the jurisdiction of the slave states." 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 U.S. 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.

The Creole revolt ignited an attack on slavery by northern abolitionists in 1842 (Schoenherr). In a New York Evangelist newspaper story, “The Hero Mutineers,” Madison Washington was named the ‘romantic hero.’ This was because Madison had shown sympathy towards the white crew members on the Creole. He had stopped his fellow slave mates from murdering them, and even dressed the sailors’ wounds after the revolt (Schoenherr). Eleven years later in 1852 the noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote a fictionalized version of the event and Washington's part in it, The Heroic Slave.

The issue roused strong feelings on both sides of the Atlantic and arose during the discussions that produced the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. According to a report in The Times, quoting the 'New York Courier and Inquirer', the American secretary of state raised it in a letter to Lord Ashburton: "The Creole case is presented in strong terms by Mr Webster in a letter (which, when published, will bring all the anti-slavery people about his ears)..." To this Lord Ashburton replied that as the case had effectively arisen after his departure from England he was ‘not empowered to treat upon the subject’. He reaffirmed the position that as slavery was no longer recognized under British law any foreign slave arriving in British possessions was automatically considered as free — as was also the case in those American states that did not recognize slavery. He did however promise that British officials in the West Indies would be given ‘directions’...'to do nothing in this respect when it can be properly avoided’ in the interests of ‘good neighbourhood’. Among other declarations, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty also called for a final end to the slave trade on the high seas, to be enforced by both signatories.

Seven lawsuits were lodged against insurance companies in Louisiana by slave owners who had suffered financial loss in the revolt.After 15 years of negotiation and arbitration, the British government agreed to pay $110,000 to the owners of the ship's "cargo."

A similar slave rebellion and takeover of a ship took place on the high seas in 1839 on board the Amistad.