Chris Carola, a writer for the Associated Press has a great story about William Tillman, an African-American merchant cook and steward who worked aboard the S.J. Waring. Carola writes that during the early parts of the Civil War, a Confederate raid ship named the Jefferson Davis, seized the S.J. Waring in the Atlantic Ocean. Five confederate sailors boarded the S.J. Waring and attempted to sail the ship to a southern port. The rebels told Tillman that once they returned south, they would sell him into slavery. Tillman, a free man by birth, replied hell no and staged a one-man, no surrender revolt. On July 16, 1861, he killed three of the rebel pirates and tossed their bodies overboard. Tillman then threatened to kill the two remaining sailors if the didn't assist him in sailing the ship to a northern port.
According to Carola's article, Tillman gain notarity for this one-man revolt. P.T. Barnum hired him to work in his New York museum where he told audiences of his daring tale of survival and how he single-handedly battled "pirates" off the Atlantic Ocean and killede three of them in less than eight minutes. Additionally, a court awared Tillman $6,000.00 for saving the Waring from sure destruction.
Special thanks to Chris Carola for writing a wonderful story. Please click HERE to read Chris Carola's story.
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