They succeeded in taking control of the ship en route from Virginia to New Orleans (known as the coastwise slave trade), and ordered it sailed to Nassau, Bahamas, a British port.
Part III ends with Madison taken aboard a ship, put in chains together with other slaves, and sailing to the South for re-sale.
Madison Washington gained the trust of all of the overseers on board and, using the files Mr. Listwell had given him, cuts through his fetters and leads the slaves in rebellion.
Ideas surrounding African American fiction, the abolitionist movement, interracial relationships, and the historical and political context of slavery were debated.
These topics were split into five sections of the eventual volume of articles that was published after the symposium, titled The Critical and Cultural Edition of The Heroic Slave.
The first was Stanley Harrold, a historian at South Carolina State University, who detailed the romanticism surrounding Douglass's version of Madison Washington's self-led slave revolt.
Jane E. Schultz of Purdue University provided the fourth part of this volume through her piece "Gimme Shelter" which highlighted the constant mobility, and as a result, lack of refuge that every slave was plagued with.
Last, but not least, is the analysis given by the symposium's keynote speaker, Robert Levine from University of Maryland, who talked about The Heroic Slave in comparison to other pieces like Uncle Tom's Cabin and Autographs for Freedom.
Levine says what makes Douglass's piece stand out is his incorporation of "heroic insurgency" and its inclusion in the Norton Anthology of American Literature built a more modern viewpoint outside of the typical anti-slavery principles.
The narrative written by Frederick Douglass was based on the famous Creole revolt led by an enslaved cook, Madison Washington.
For example, Douglass doesn't give many details as to why Washington decided to escape in the first place, but Brown blames it on his failure to "gather an insurrection of slaves" and Childs says his wife, Susan, persuades him to leave.
[3][4] Douglass specifically points out that Washington's motives involved fighting for his freedom and natural rights, but not necessarily being part of the abolitionist movement.
Additionally, according to the "Protest of the Crew of the American Brig Creole" published by the New Orleans Advertiser, many more white passengers died than were actually reported by Douglass.
In the same article written in the New Orleans Advertiser, five crew members aboard the ship affirmed that in addition to Washington, Ben Blacksmith, Elijah Morris, and D. Ruffin were also leaders of the revolt who killed the white passenger on guard.
Despite these many differences, one consistent factor between fiction and nonfiction was Douglass's physical description of Washington as a strong masculine figure - this was indeed corroborated by other witnesses.
University of California, Irvine professor, Krista Walter, argues that Frederick Douglass communicated the Creole slave revolt led by Madison Washington with a nationalistic viewpoint.
As scholars John R. McKivigan and Jane E. Schultz point out, this is a common theme among many narratives when slaves try to gain their freedom, as they find themselves constantly traveling to different locations to avoid getting caught.
They argue that rights in the United States are bestowed upon every person no matter their race, gender, or socioeconomic status from the moment they are born.
Additionally, Stanley Harrold stated that the nonviolent description of the uprising as a whole with an exclusion of details surrounding the death of White soldiers aboard the Creole speaks to Douglass's purpose in depicting a certain view of the abolitionist movement throughout the narrative.
Although still a topic of discussion, historians have pointed out the disconect between Douglass's version of the journey and Washington's real accounts of what he experienced.