THE CREOLE CASE (1841)

 CONTRIBUTED BY: SAMUEL MOMODU

The Creole Case was the result of an American slave revolt in November 1841 on board the Creole, a ship involved in the United States coastwise slave trade. As a consequence of the revolt, 128 enslaved people won their freedom in the Bahamas, then a British possession. Because of the number of people eventually freed, the Creole mutiny was the most successful slave revolt in US history.

In the fall of 1841, the brig Creole, which was owned by the Johnson and Eperson Company of Richmond, Virginia, transported 135 slaves from Richmond for sale in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Creole had left Richmond with 103 slaves and picked up another 32 in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Most of the slaves were owned by Johnson and Eperson, but 26 were owned by Thomas McCargo, a slave trader who was one of the Creole passengers. The ship also carried tobacco; a crew of ten; the captain’s wife, daughter, and niece; four passengers, including slave traders; and eight slaves of the traders.

Madison Washington, an enslaved man who escaped to Canada in 1840 but was captured and sold when he returned to Virginia in search of his wife Susan, was among those being shipped to New Orleans. On November 7, 1841, Washington and eighteen other male slaves rebelled, overwhelming the crew and killing John R. Hewell, one of the slave traders.  The ship’s captain, Robert Ensor, along with several crew members, was wounded but survived. One of the slaves was badly wounded and later died.

The rebels took overseer William Merritt at his word that he would navigate for them. They first demanded that the ship be taken to Liberia. When Merritt told them that the voyage was impossible because of the shortage of food or water, another rebel, Ben Blacksmen, said they should be taken to the British West Indies, because he knew the slaves from the Hermosa had gained their freedom the previous year under a similar circumstance. On November 9, 1841, the Creole reached Nassau where it first was boarded by the harbor pilot and his crew, all local black Bahamians. They told the American slaves that under British law they were free and then advised them to go ashore at once.

As Captain Ensor was badly wounded, the Bahamian quarantine officer took First Mate Zephaniah Gifford to inform the American consul of the events. At the consul’s request, the British governor of the Bahamas ordered a guard to board the Creole to prevent the escape of the men implicated in Hewell’s death.

The British took Washington and eighteen conspirators into custody under charges of mutiny, while the rest of the enslaved were allowed to live as free people. Five people, which included three women, a girl, and a boy, decided to stay aboard the Creole and sailed with the ship to New Orleans, returning to slavery. On April 16, 1842, the Admiralty Court in Nassau ordered the surviving seventeen mutineers to be released and freed including Washington. In total, 128 enslaved people gained their freedom, which made the Creole mutiny the most successful slave revolt in US history.

LYNCHING OF JULIA AND FRAZIER BAKER (1898)

CONTRIBUTED BY: ERICKA BENEDICTO

Frazier Baker, a schoolteacher and married father of six, was appointed the first African American postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina, in July 1897 by President William McKinley. Baker and his wife Lavinia were born in Effingham, South Carolina, a mostly black area, where he had previously served as postmaster. To assume his latest federal assignment, Baker and his family relocated to Lake City, a predominantly white community.

From the outset Baker faced bitter opposition from Lake City whites. Residents filed several grievances against Baker sharply criticizing his administrative abilities and accusing him of being incompetent, ill-mannered, and lazy. Among their complaints was that Baker had reduced mail deliveries from three times to once a day. Baker however had curtailed deliveries to daily drops due to repeated threats on his life. Federal postal inspectors investigated the claims and determined that the accusations against Baker were unsubstantiated.

Baker also faced violence.  In one instance, Baker and an acquaintance faced gunfire as they left the post office; another time, the post office building was shot up; and about six months after Baker took the job, the post office was set afire and burned down. At the recommendation of authorities, the post office was relocated to the outskirts of Lake City in the hope of reducing racial hostility.

Even on the edges of town, racial violence dogged Baker and his family. On February 22, 1898, Lavinia awakened around 1:00 a.m. to discover that their home—which also functioned as the post office—had been set ablaze by a mob of whites. Lavinia quickly alerted Baker, who immediately tried to extinguish the fire. Lavinia then grabbed their youngest child, two-year-old Julia, into her arms and gathered the other five children.

Desperate to shepherd his family away from danger, Baker opened the front door but gunshots struck him in the head and body killing him as he fell backward into the blazing building.  Lavinia was also shot as she fled. She was struck in the forearm, which caused her to drop Julia.  The bullet that hit Lavinia also fatally shot Julia. Both Baker and his baby daughter Julia lay dead on the floor while flames consumed their bodies.

Lavinia and her surviving children escaped to a neighbor’s house.  There she saw the critical gunshot wounds of three of her children.  Remarkably, two of her children were physically unharmed.

In April 1899, federal prosecutors tried thirteen white men for conspiring against Baker. However, an all-white jury failed to convict the perpetrators. Following the trial, Lavinia moved her family to Boston, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, when a tuberculosis outbreak ravaged through a poor black community in Boston, Lavinia’s youngest child, William, died from the illness in 1908. Twelve years later, she lost three more children. Finally, in 1942, Lavinia’s last surviving child died from a heart attack.  Afterward, Lavinia returned to South Carolina where she resided until she died in 1947.

STONO REBELLION (1739)

CONTRIBUTED BY: CLAUDIA SUTHERLAND

On Sunday, September 9th, 1739 the British colony of South Carolina was shaken by a slave uprising that culminated with the death of sixty people. Led by an Angolan named Jemmy, a band of twenty slaves organized a rebellion on the banks of the Stono River. After breaking into Hutchinson’s store the band, now armed with guns, called for their liberty.  As they marched, overseers were killed and reluctant slaves were forced to join the company. The band reached the Edisto River where white colonists descended upon them, killing most of the rebels.  The survivors were sold off to the West Indies.

The immediate factors that sparked the uprising remain in doubt. A malaria epidemic in Charlestown, which caused general confusion throughout Carolina, may have influenced the timing of the Rebellion.  The recent (August 1739) passage of the Security Act by the South Carolina Colonial Assembly may also have played a role. The act required all white men to carry firearms to church on Sunday. Thus the enslaved leaders of the rebellion knew their best chance for success would be during the time of the church services when armed white males were away from the plantations.

After the Stono Rebellion South Carolina authorities moved to reduce provocations for rebellion.  Masters, for example, were penalized for imposing excessive work or brutal punishments of slaves and a school was started so that slaves could learn Christian doctrine.  In a colony that already had more blacks than whites, the Assembly also imposed a prohibitive duty on the importation of new slaves from Africa and the West Indies.  Authorities also tightened control over the enslaved.  The Assembly enacted a new law requiring a ratio of one white for every ten blacks on any plantation and passed the Negro Act of 1740 which prohibited enslaved people from growing their own food, assembling in groups, earning money they, rather than their owners, could retain or learning to read.