Rebellious Passage: The Creole Revolt and America's Coastal Slave Trade

In late October 1841, the Creole left Richmond with 137 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.

Table of Contents:
1. Eagle versus lion; 2. The coastal passage; 3. 'Several cases'; 4. 'Engaged in the business ever since she was constructed'; 5. 'The Negroes have risen'; 6. 'Their determination to quit the vessel'; 7. 'Old neighbors'; 8. 'A new state of things'; 9. 'Property rights' versus 'rights of man'; 10. Causa Proxima, Non Remota, Spectator; 11. 'Full and final settlement'; Epilogue.

About the Author :
Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie is Professor of History at Howard University, Washington DC and author of Freedpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860–1900 (1999); Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World (2007); and Freedom's Seekers: Essays on Comparative Emancipation (2014).

Review :
'We have waited almost two centuries for the full, gripping story of Madison Washington and his fellow mutineers aboard the Creole. Here at long last comes Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie to narrate their magnificent tale with acuity and power. This is inspirational 'history from below' at its best.' Marcus Rediker, author of The Amistad Rebellion 'Rebellious Passage provides a comprehensive account of the most successful slave revolt in the history of the United States. At the same time, through a detailed analysis of the domestic slave trade along the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, it offers a maritime history of the antebellum era from a truly transnational and transatlantic perspective.' Matthew J. Clavin, author of Aiming for Pensacola: Fugitive Slaves on the Atlantic and Southern Frontiers 'Kerr-Ritchie examines the successful slave rebellion aboard the America slaveship Creole in 1841 - a revolt often overlooked in favor of the Amistad rebellion two years earlier. Kerr-Ritchie contends that the Creole uprising warrants further study for a number of reasons, among them its role in heightening sectional hostility within the US, pushing a proslavery US and an antislavery Great Britain to the brink of war, highlighting the nature and scope of the coastal slave trade, and revealing the struggle for freedom on the parts of both the enslaved aboard and the Bahamians (who welcomed the enslaved as free people and facilitated their further travels to Jamaica). … Rebellious Passage is a compelling addition to the literature for its focus on the Creole revolt per se (including subsequent court cases), the experiences of the former slaves in Jamaica, and the coastal slave trade in general. Recommended.' W. H. Taylor, Choice 'The historian's breath of fresh air, Rebellious Passage masterfully demonstrates the utility of placing the Creole revolt at the center of the long history of diplomacy between two expanding nineteenth-century domains - a post-emancipation antislavery empire and a rapidly strengthening slaveholding republic.' Marcus P. Nevius, Journal of Southern History '… presents a compelling portrait of the events, participants, and results of the Creole case … Kerr-Ritchie uses meticulous multinational research to provide an account that emphasizes the agency of the captives onboard the vessel.' Robert Alderson, The Journal of American History 'Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie's book is not the first study of the 1841 slave revolt aboard the Creole, but it is the best … Rebellious Passage offers the reader something important and new by placing people of color at the center of the postrevolt story, not just at the violent climax … Kerr-Ritchie has given us the definitive book on the revolt and a model for transatlantic scholarship in the age of abolition.' Michael A. Schoeppner, The Journal of the Civil War Era 'Rebellious Passage masterfully demonstrates the utility of placing the Creole revolt at the center of the long history of diplomacy between two expanding nineteenth-century domains-a postemancipation antislavery empire and a rapidly strengthening slaveholding republic.' Marcus P. Nevius, Journal of Southern History 'Extremely well-researched and compellingly written …' Thomas Mareite, Books & Ideas 'The research underpinning this book is exhaustive and impressive … clearly written … can be recommended to students and scholars alike.' Tim Lockley, Slavery & Abolition 'Rebellious Passage offers a compelling account of this memorable uprising and marshals strong evidence of black captives' collective ability to negotiate the contested maritime zones of slavery and emancipation.' Sharla M. Fett, American Nineteenth Century History 'Rebellious Passage is thematically varied, analytically sound, fully substantiated, interestingly narrated, historically integrated, and brings to the present interconnected slices of the histories of the United States of America, Great Britain, and the Bahamas. It is highly recommended to all interested in the diplomatic, economic, and social history of these three entities.' Gelien Matthews, The American Historical Review '… Kerr-Ritchie patiently untangles the twisted threads in what many readers will consider the most arcane aspect of this story … Rebellious Passage does a marvellous job contextualizing and analyzing the revolt and its repercussions.' Jon Scott Logel, The Northern Mariner