Madison Washington escaped from slavery twice. His actions resulted in widespread admiration from abolitionists—including Frederick Douglass, who hailed Washington as a hero—and spawned novellas, pamphlets, and other antislavery literature that contributed to the widening attack on the institution in the early 1840s.
Washington first escaped slavery when he ran away to Canada. Unable to live freely without his enslaved wife, he returned to the South in a bid to rescue her, which ended tragically when she was killed in the attempt and Washington was enslaved once more. Washington is, however, principally remembered for his second escape from slavery. With a cargo of 135 slaves, the American slave brig Creole sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia, bound for New Orleans in October 1841 with the re enslaved Washington on board In November a group of nineteen slaves led by Washington seized the boat killing one white crewman and forced a ...
