After spending most of his life on a slave plantation he managed to escape in 1839 and, with the help of the Underground Railroad, he fled to Canada.
Purvis recalled that Washington was fascinated by a portrait of Joseph Cinqué, a slave who led a successful uprising aboard the schooner La Amistad.
[3] Washington later returned to Virginia to look for his still-enslaved wife, which resulted in his being recaptured by an overseer and placed aboard the Creole to be sold alongside her.
A special session of the Admiralty Court heard the case, but ruled in favor of the men and freed them in April 1842.
As 128 slaves gained freedom resulting from this revolt, it is considered the most successful in United States history.