Self-Emancipation on the High Seas: The Creole Slave Mutiny of 1841 in Legal and Diplomatic Perspective

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.