The Decatur slave-ship mutiny was an act of resistance that took place in April 1826 aboard a coastwise slave ship sailing from Baltimore, Maryland, to the New Orleans slave market. This mutiny was part of the broader struggle against the domestic slave trade in the United States, which transported enslaved Africans from the Upper South, where there was a surplus of free labour, to the Deep South, where the expanding cotton economy demanded more enslaved workers.
The Decatur slave ship was owned by Austin Woolfolk, a prominent American slave trader and plantation owner who was one of the most active slave traders in Maryland.
The vessel had reportedly loaded 32 enslaved Africans from Woolfolk’s slave jail and was sailing from Baltimore, Maryland, to New Orleans where the relentless demand for free slave labour in the cotton fields fueled the domestic slave trade.
On April 26, 1826, as the Decatur sailed on its grim journey, the captives aboard the vessel revolted, seizing control of the ship. In the struggle, they threw both the captain and the first mate overboard. For a brief moment, they controlled the ship and their own fate.
But the victory lasted for a very short time. The ship was intercepted twice by other vessels, and some captives were taken into custody. Eventually, the Decatur arrived in New York, a free state, where 14 of the former captives managed to escape. However, one of them, 24 year old William Bowser, was recaptured. He was put on trial for the murder of the ship’s captain and mate, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged for his role in the mutiny.
On the morning of December 16, 1826, as Bowser walked toward the gallows on Ellis Island, his final act stunned all who were watching. He forgave Austin Woolfolk, the man who had enslaved him. In return, the slave trader cursed him. The remaining 13 who had escaped into freedom disappeared into the shadows of history, never caught and their fates unknown.
Benjamin Lundy, an abolitionist and Quaker who had followed the trial closely, was deeply disturbed by the miscarriage of justice. He wrote passionate articles in his newspaper, condemning the institution of slavery and calling out Woolfolk for his brutal role in it.
Several months later, following the execution, Lundy encountered Woolfolk near a Post Office in Baltimore. Infuriated by Lundy’s reporting, Woolfolk attacked him, violently stomping on his head and inflicting injuries that left the abolitionist bedridden for several days. Woolfolk later pleaded guilty to assault, but the judge, siding with the slave trader, ruled that Lundy had provoked the attack by criticizing Woolfolk’s “lawful occupation.” Despite Lundy’s injuries, Woolfolk was fined a mere dollar, and the judge even suggested that Woolfolk pursue a criminal libel charge against Lundy. However, a grand jury refused to indict him.
The Decatur mutiny, though largely forgotten in mainstream history, was one of many acts of resistance against the brutal institution of slavery in the United States. Though the names of many who fought for their freedom have faded from record, their courage remains an essential chapter in the long history of rebellion against oppression.
Sources:
Rupprecht, Anita. “Black Atlantic Maritime Networks, Resistance and the American ‘Domestic’ Slave Trade.” Slavery & Abolition, vol. 40, no. 3, Sept. 2019, p. p. 458-476
For reports of the mutiny aboard the Decatur see the Essex Register, Salem, MA, 22 May 1826, p. 3; City Gazette and Commercial, Charleston, South Carolina, 26 May 1826, p. 2; Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria, Virginia, 22 May 1826, p. 2.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/all-we-have-done-we-have-done-for-freedom-the-creole-slaveship-revolt-1841-and-the-revolutionary-atlantic/E3E603AB597D0992A87D59A7D84E9A9C#fn21
