Monthly Program: The Creole Incident: The Beginning of the End of Slavery

A presentation by John Hyde Barnard

John Hyde Barnard discussed a threat to democracy in the years 1836-42 when Southern Representatives acted to establish slavery under Federal Jurisprudence. The Creole Incident describes a calculated and premeditated course of action taken by a handful of radical abolitionists, in concert with certain Congressmen, to break the stranglehold of slavery’s representation in Congress. They turned to a slave revolt onboard the brig Creole to help make their case. At the heart of the story is the love between two slaves and their determination to be free. Events reach a climax when the British government has to decide the fate of the Creole slaves now imprisoned in the Bahamas on charges of mutiny and murder. These two stores combine to set in motion a series of dramatic floor fights in the United States House of Representatives—with the struggle for power between North and South hanging in the balance. A true historical incident that is an American story—for all Americans.

John Hyde Barnard is a member of the American Historical Society and the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, and was recently elected to the board of directors for the Institute for Historical Study. Although John attended Saddleback Community College, California State University at San Marcos, University of California at Riverside and Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, he did not participate in academia or practice law. Instead, he pursued and continues in an active career as a musician, arranger, producer, publicist, performer and musical director. He discovered the Creole Incident as a student at Saddleback Community College and was accepted into the doctoral program at U.C. Riverside to create a dissertation on the subject.