Ii8 THE ROARING FORTIES 



It is not unlikely that Webster, when inject 

 ing the discussion of impressment into the cor 

 respondence with Ashburton, was conscious of 

 the influence it might have as a set-off against 

 the attacks of the anti-slavery agitators upon 

 the United States. In America, at least, forced 

 service in the navy was regarded as not much 

 different in principle from forced service in the 

 cotton-field. So long as the British Govern 

 ment insisted on the right to drag freemen away 

 into such servitude, its interest in mitigating 

 the woes of the African slave savored of hypoc 

 risy. The utility, if not the validity, of this 

 kind of reasoning was rendered obvious by an 

 incident that threatened serious consequences 

 just at the time of the Webster-Ashburton ne 

 gotiations. 



In November, 1841, the brig Creole was 

 bound from Hampton Roads to New Orleans 

 with a few passengers and 135 slaves on board. 

 On the way the slaves rose in revolt, slew one 

 of the passengers, wounded many of the crew, 

 and took the vessel into the British port of 

 Nassau, in the Bahamas, where the local au 

 thorities, after arresting those of the slaves who 

 were implicated in the mutiny, forcibly took the 

 rest from the ship and set them free. This 



