this he was censured by the House by a vote of one hundred and twenty-five to sixty-nine. Remarkable as it seems now, the pro-slavery members were so far fanatical in their pursuit of Mr. Giddings that they refused to allow him to defend himself or even explain his object in introducing the resolutions, Such unjust action eventually did more harm to the perpetrators than to anyone else — it did harm, in fact, to no one else. Giddings resigned, went home, and was returned by his constituents within five weeks.
Thus the mutiny on the "Creole", a coasting slaver, became one of the most important episodes in the "irrepressible conflict" that was rising between the slave and the free-soil States.
The number of slaves that were shipped in coastwise traders is now really a matter of conjecture, but one may get an idea from kindred facts. Thus the Virginia Times, in an article quoted in Niles's Register for October 8, 1836, boasts that no less than 40,000 slaves had been sold for export from Virginia to other States during the fiscal year preceding, and that the sales had brought into the State an average of $600 per head, or $24,000,000 all told. A letter to the Journal of Commerce, of New York, at about that period estimates the number driven (i.e., sent South on foot) out of the State in a year at 20,000. This would leave 20,000 to be sent by ship.
Another estimate may be drawn from the fact that the number of slaves in the Lafayette, Encomium, Enlerprise, and Creole was near one hundred per vessel. Very likely that was an average coaster cargo. Now one Alexandria firm advertised two ships a month,
