The Heroic Slave

Federick Douglass' Novel

Although he is best-known for his autobiographies, the great abolitionist and African American leader Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895) also wrote an important novel. I learned of it in reading about Douglass. I was pleased to have the opportunity to find the book and to discuss it here. Douglass's novel, in fact an extended short story, is available in this new, inexpensive edition as well as in anthologies of his writings.

Written in 1853, "The Heroic Slave" is among the first works of fiction by an African American. It is based upon a historical incident: the slave mutiny in November,1841 on the American ship, Creole. The Creole had sailed from Richmond with a cargo of 134 slaves to be sold in New Orleans. A slave with the name of Madison Washington escaped his irons and, together with 18 other slaves, took over the ship and sailed it to the British port of Nassau in the Bahamas. The British refused to return the slaves to their owners, and they remained in Nassau as free people. The United States government did not object. Many Americans responded to the incident by debating whether the United States should have been more aggressive in approaching Britain. However, Madison Washington became a hero to many abolitionists, including Douglass. The Creole incident is similar to the better-known slave rebellion involving the Amistad.

Douglass' equates the actions of Madison Washington in commandeering the Creole with the actions of his namesakes, (Madison and Washington) among others, in the Revolutionary War of 1776. Here is how he opens the novel:

"The State of Virginia is famous in American annals for the multitudinous array of her statesmen and heroes. She has been dignified by some the mother of statesmen...... Yet not all the great ones of the Old Dominion have, by the fact of their birth-place escaped undeserved obscurity. By some strange neglect, one of the truest manliest, and bravest of her children .... hold now no higher place in the records of that grand old Commonwealth than is held by a horse or an ox. Let those account for it who can, but there stands the fact, that a man who loved liberty as well as did Patrick Henry, - who deserved it as much as Thomas Jefferson, - and who fought for it with a valor as high, an arm as strong, and against odds as great, as he who led all the armies of the American colonies through the great war for freedom and independence, lives now only in the chattel records of his native State."

Douglass' short novel is in four parts, the last of which recounts the story of Madison Washington and the Creole. In the preceding three parts of the book, Douglass gives an imaginative portrayal of the earlier life of Madison Washington and his struggle for "freedom and independence". The earlier three parts tell of encounters over a space of years between Washington and a white northerner named Listwell. The first encounter was in 1835 when Listwell was traveling in Virginia and, on a Sunday, hears a lone bloodied slave praying and denouncing the inhumanity of his bondage. Listwell does not speak to the man but resolves instead to become an abolitionist and work towards the end of slavery.

In 1840, Listwell and his wife, on their farm in Ohio are approached by a lone traveler who turns out to be Madison Washington. Listwell tells Washington of the earlier encounter in 1835. Washington explains his various attempts at escape and the five years he spent in a swamp before a fire destroyed this site of refuge and threatened him with capture. Listwell helps Washington secure passage on the Underground Railroad to Canada.

Part 3 of the book occurs in 1841. Listwell is again in Virginia and staying at an inn. He observes a long coffle of slaves to be sold and sees Madison Washington among them. Listwell manages a few moments alone with Washington and learns that he was recaptured when he returned to Virginia in a failed attempt to rescue his wife. Listwell is able to smuggle three files to Washington, together with ten dollars, before, the group is put on board the Creole to be sold in New Orleans.

The final part of the book is recounted in the words of the first mate of the Creole, who describes the manly courageous character of Marcus Washington. Washington spared his life, navigated the Creole through a treacherous storm and led the slaves to freedom.. The mate concludes that he will "never endanger my life again in a cause which my conscience does not approve. I dare say here what many men feel, but dare not speak, that this whole slave-trading business is a disgrace and scandal to Old Virginia." The mate also recounts the justification Madison Washington offered for his actions in terms that recall the Revolution:

"God is my witness that LIBERTY, not malice, is the motive for this night's work. I have done no more to those dead men yonder, than they would have done to me in like circumstances. We have struck for our freedom, and if a true man's heart be in you, you win honor us for the deed. We have done that which you applaud your fathers for doing, and if we are murderers, so were they."

This short, eloquent novel speaks of the value of independence, freedom, and courage. The novel has been compared to Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which had appeared about a year earlier. The best parallel to the book, however, is Melville's masterful story of a slave mutiny, "Benito Cereno" Benito Cereno (Bedford College Editions) which appeared in 1855, two years after Douglass' book. Readers interested in American literature or in the African American experience will enjoy getting to know Douglass' "Heroic Slave".

Robin Friedman