Part 2 WHEN FISH FLY: The Revolt on the Slave Ship Creole
On October 25, 1841, twelve-year-old Pleasant Brown boards the Creole, a merchant slave ship sailing from Richmond to New Orleans with a “cargo” of enslaved men, women, and children. Although the United States had outlawed the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808, for many years there remained an active and legal domestic slave trade between Southern states. During that time, thousands of enslaved persons were transported by ship along America’s eastern coast to slave markets in the Deep South.
Pleasant’s grandmother, who had been born in Africa, was the daughter of a chief, and Pleasant remembers the songs she would sing to comfort herself. While imprisoned in the slave pens in Richmond, Pleasant tries to live up to his “chief’s heart” and not despair. But when he sees his mother being taken away, he feels like a jagged piece of his heart has broken off and wedged itself in the back of his throat.
Joining Pleasant on the Creole is Madison Washington, who, although enslaved, appears to be a learned man. Madison assures Pleasant that everything will be all right.
THE CREOLE STOPPEDto pick up more slaves and boxes of tobacco as it sailed down the James River before heading out to sea. Captain Ensore, a short,
