Hermosa (slave ship)

Hermosa was a schooner and slave ship whose 1840 grounding in the Bahamas led to a controversy between the United Kingdom and the United States over the 38 slaves who had been on board the ship and were freed.

Facts

Hermosa was sailing from Richmond, Virginia, to New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1840 with a cargo of slaves when she was wrecked in the Abaco Islands. Because the United Kingdom had abolished slavery in 1833, the local government forcibly removed and freed the slaves after the ship docked in Nassau in the Bahamas.[1]

Impact

The freeing of Hermosa's slaves was widely discussed in the United States. The next year, slaves on the slave ship Creole rebelled against Creole′s crew, and chose to go to the Bahamas because they had heard about Hermosa.[2][3] The cases of both ships were discussed in the United States Congress, leading to at least one call for war against Britain if compensation was not made.[4]

Resolution

The owner of Hermosa's slaves, Robert Lumpkin, sought compensation in admiralty court. The case was dealt with together with claims related to Creole and the slave ship Enterprize, and the ship's insurers were awarded $16,000 in compensation in 1855.[1][5]

References

1. Rodriguez, Junius P. (1997-01-01). The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery. ABC-CLIO. p. 340. ISBN 9780874368857.
2. Boelhower, William (2013-09-13). New Orleans in the Atlantic World: Between Land and Sea. Routledge. p. 145. ISBN 9781317988434.
3. Walters, Kerry (2015-09-22). American Slave Revolts and Conspiracies: A Reference Guide. ABC-CLIO. p. 140. ISBN 9781610696609.
4. Moody, Loring (1847-01-01). Facts for the People, showing the relations of the United States Government to Slavery, etc. p. 33.
5. Downey, Arthur T. (2014-08-14). The Creole Affair: The Slave Rebellion that Led the U.S. and Great Britain to the Brink of War. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 145. ISBN 9781442236622.