Madison Washington

Madison Washington was the instigator of a revolt on the slave ship Creole in 1841.

Washington served as a ship's cook, while he was shipped along with 134 other slaves from Virginia to New Orleans. He incited 18 of his fellow prisoners to a rebellion. They took over control of the Creole and sailed to the British-controlled island of Nassau. Despite American protests, the British did not send back the slaves, but were finally free. Before they locked Washington and his accomplices, however, for mutiny a few months.

Madison Washington was the namesake for the hero in Frederick Douglass ' novel, The Heroic Slave.