On April 26, 1826, a desperate struggle for freedom unfolded aboard the Decatur, a coastwise slave ship sailing from Baltimore, Maryland, to New Orleans. Among the enslaved Africans on board was 24-year-old William Bowser, a young man who had already faced the brutal realities of slavery and had once attempted to escape. His determination to reclaim his freedom led him to play a crucial role in the ship’s mutiny—an act of rebellion that would ultimately cost him his life.
The Domestic Slave Trade and the Role of the Decatur
By the early 19th century, the transatlantic slave trade had been outlawed in the United States, but the internal or domestic slave trade had intensified. The economies of Maryland and Virginia, once reliant on tobacco, had shifted, leaving many enslaved Africans in those states considered “surplus labor.” Rather than freeing them, slaveholders saw an opportunity to profit by selling them to traders who would transport them to the Deep South, where the demand for labour was increasing due to the rise of cotton, sugar, and rice plantations. Some even went so far as to breed their slaves like livestock to meet demand. This internal trade became a massive, lucrative industry, with tens of thousands of enslaved Africans forcibly moved each year from the Upper South to states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
One of the most notorious figures in this trade was Austin Woolfolk, a prominent Baltimore-based slave trader and plantation owner. Woolfolk operated a slave jail where he held people in captivity before selling them to the highest bidder. He was known for his ruthless efficiency in transporting enslaved Africans to New Orleans, the largest slave market in the country. The Decatur, one of the ships he used for this purpose, was carrying 32 enslaved africans when it left Baltimore in April 1826. These individuals, including William Bowser, were shackled and crammed together, facing an uncertain but almost certainly brutal fate upon arrival in New Orleans.
For the captives aboard the Decatur, this journey was not just a physical relocation—it was a violent rupture from their families and communities. Many had already endured the trauma of being sold away from loved ones, and the voyage to New Orleans meant being placed in an even harsher system of forced labour, where the demand for enslaved workers was fueled by the relentless expansion of cotton plantations. Faced with this grim reality, some of the enslaved people on board made the daring decision to revolt.
On April 26, 1826, as the Decatur sailed toward the Deep South, the captives launched their rebellion. Rising up against their captors, they seized control of the ship, fighting fiercely for their freedom.
For the mutineers, this was more than just an escape attempt—it was an act of resistance against a system that had stolen their lives, their dignity, and their futures. They understood the risks; they knew that even if they succeeded in seizing the ship, their struggle was far from over. Still, they fought with courage, refusing to accept their fate without resistance.
In the struggle, they managed to overpower and throw both the captain and the first mate overboard. For a brief moment, they had turned the tide against their oppressors.
However, their victory was short-lived. The Decatur was intercepted twice by other vessels, and some of the rebels were taken into custody.
When the Decatur eventually arrived in New York, a free state, 14 of the mutineers managed to escape, vanishing into the city and evading recapture. Their fate remains unknown, as they disappeared into history. But William Bowser was not as fortunate. He was recaptured, placed on trial, and charged with the murder of the ship’s captain and first mate. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged.
On the morning of December 16, 1826, William Bowser was led to the gallows on Ellis Island. His execution was meant to serve as a warning to others—an attempt to deter future rebellions by demonstrating the consequences of defying the system. In an astonishing final act, he forgave Austin Woolfolk, the man who had enslaved him. In return, the slave trader cursed him.
The fate of the 13 others who had escaped into freedom remains unknown. They disappeared into history, never caught and never named again.
William Bowser paid the ultimate price for his role in the rebellion, but his story is a reminder that the fight for freedom was not just waged in courts and legislatures—it was fought on ships, in fields, and wherever enslaved Africans saw an opportunity to break their chains.
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
