Hermosa was an Americanslave ship whose 1840 grounding in theBahamas led to a controversy between theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States over the 38 slaves who had been on board the ship and were freed by the British authorities.
Hermosa was sailing fromRichmond,Virginia, toNew Orleans,Louisiana, in 1840 with a cargo ofslaves when she was wrecked in theAbaco Islands. Because the United Kingdom hadabolished slavery in 1833, the local government forcibly removed and freed the slaves after the ship docked inNassau in the Bahamas.[1]
The freeing ofHermosa's slaves was widely discussed in the United States. The next year, slaves on theslave shipCreole rebelled againstCreole′s crew, and chose to go to the Bahamas because they had heard aboutHermosa.[2][3] The cases of both ships were discussed in theUnited States Congress, leading to at least one call for war against Britain if compensation was not made.[4]
The owner ofHermosa's slaves,Robert Lumpkin, sought compensation inadmiralty court. The case was dealt with together with claims related toCreole and the slave shipEnterprise, and the ship's insurers were awarded $16,000 in compensation in 1855.[1][5]
| Shipwrecks |
|
|---|---|
| Other incidents | |
