Depiction of uprising In 1841, 135 enslaved people aboard the ship, The Creole, were being transported from Virginia to the South's most prominent slave market: New Orleans. Madison Washington and 17 other enslaved people attacked the ship's crew and captain, took hold of the weapons on board, and retrieved all documents regarding their enslavement. They redirected the ship to the nearest British port, The Bahamas. There, they were "declared free on the ground that a man by n