"Black-Caesar" (1718)

Was an 18th-century African pirate.For nearly a decade,he raided shipping from the Florida Keys and later served as one of Captain Blackbeard's,a.k.a. Edward Teach's,crewmen aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge.He was one of the surviving members of Blackbeard's crew following his death at the hands of Lieutenant Robert Maynard in 1718.Caesar's Rock,one of three islands located north of Key Largo,is named in his honor,and the present-day site of his his original headquarters.

Black Caesar,according to traditional accounts,was a prominent African tribal chieftain.Widely known for his "huge size," immense strength and keen intelligence,"

he evaded capture from many different slave traders.Caesar was finally captured when he and twenty of his warriors were lured onto a ship by a slave trader.Showing him a watch,the trader promised him and his warriors more objects, which were "too heavy and too numerous to bring on "shore if they came aboard his ship. He enticed them to stay with with food, musical instruments,silk scarves and jewels,however he had raise anchor and slowly sail away.When Caesar discovered what was was happening,he and his men attempt to charge their captors but were driven back by the well-arm sailors using swords and pistols.Although it took a considerable length of time for him and his warriors to accept their captivity,he was eventually befriended by a sailor who was the only black man Caesar would accept food and water from.

As they neared the coast of Florida,sudden appearance of a hurricane threatened to destroy the ship on Florida Reefs.Recognizing the ship's imminent destruction,the sailor snuck below decks and freed Caesar.The two then forced the captain and crew into a corner, most likely at gunpoint,and boarded one of the longboats with ammunition and other supplies.The wind and waves pushed them to shore where they waited out the storm,apparently the only survivors of the doomed ship.

They soon began using the lifeboat to lure passing ships which stopped to give assistance.While posing as shipwrecked sailors,they would sail out to the vessel offering to take them aboard.Once they were close to the vessel,they brought out their guns and demanded supplies and ammunition,threatening to sink if they were refused.He and the sailors continued this ploy for a number of years and amassed a sizable amount of treasure which was buried on Elliott Key.However,he and the sailor had a falling out over a young woman the mate had brought back from one of the ships they looted fighting over her,Caesar killed his friend in a duel and took the woman for his own.

Heb began taking on more pirates over time and soon was able to attack ships on the open sea.Caesar and his crew were often able to avoid capture by running into Caesar Creek and other inlets between Elliot and Old Rhodes Key and onto the Mangroves Islands.Using a metal ring embedded in a rock,they ran a strong rope through the ring,heel over the boat,and hide until the patrol ship or some other danger went away.They might also lower the mast and sink in shallow water,later cutting the rope or pumping out the water to raise the boat and continue raiding.It is through that he and his men buried 26 bars of siver on the island,although no treasure has river been recovered from the island.

Caesar apparently had a harem on his his island,having at least 100 women seized from passing ships,as well as a prison camp which he kept prisoners in stone huts hoping to ransom them.When leaving the island to go on raids,he left no provisions for these prisoners and many eventually starved to death.A few children reportedly escaped captivity,subsisting on berries and shellfish, and formed their own language and customs.This society of lost children gave raise to native superstition that the island is hunted.

During the early 18th century,Caesar left Biscayne Bay to joy Blackbeard in raiding American shipping in the Mid-Atlantic serving as a lieutenant on his flagship Queen Anne's Revenge In 1718,after Blackbeard's death with Lieutenant Robert Maynard at
Ocracoke Island,he attempted to set off the powder magazine as per Blackbeard's instructions.However,Caesar was stopped by one of the captives who tacked him as he prepared to light a trail of gunpowder leading to the magazine.He struggled with the men below decks until several of Maynard's sailors were able to restrain him.Taken prisoner by Virginian Colonial authorites,he was convicted of piracy in Williamsburgh,Virginia.

"John-Julian" [1701-March 26,1733,]

Was the first recorded  black pirate to operate in the new world,as the pilot of the ship Whydah.


John was a half-blood Miskito Indian who joined Samuel Bellamy early in his brief career.He eventually piloted the Whydah,why was the leading ship of  Bellamy's fleet,when he was only 16.John was one of  30-50 people of  African descent in the pirate crew-all were treated as equals.


John's life became more difficult after survived the Whydah wreck in 1717.He was jailed in Boston apparently never indicted.He was likely sold into slavery,"the Julian the Indian" bought by  John Quincy-whose grandson,President John Quincy Adams,became a staunch abolitionist.


A purported "unruly slave," Julian the Indian was sold to another owner and tried often to escape.During one attempt,he killed a bounty hunter who was trying catch him.John was executed.

"Hendrick-Quintor"(1692-1717)

A free black man of Dutch & African descent, "went on the account"when the Spanish brigantine he was aboard was captured by French privates in the early 1700s.He was was one of 30 seamen of African descent on board the Whydah,along with 20 more black pirates on the other ships in "Black Sam Bellamy flotilla.Henrick perhaps the son of a sailor,spent most of his time at sea.After joining the pirates of the Whydahearned a reputation as one of the toughest pirates on the ship.Hendrick was not aboard the Whydah,when she sank in 1717.He didn't survive long after.Hendrick was captured in 1717,found guilty of piracy,and was sentenced to death by hanging.The town square was packed near the gallows where he and five other pirates met their death.To the audience,it was entertainment.A mulatto born in Amsterdam.He served proudly aboard the Whydah,a pirate shipwreck site discovered in 1984 by underwater explorer Barry Clifford an his team continue to direct the ongoing excavation of the wreck in a project that has been described by state and federal regulatory agencies as " model for private archaeology." The National Geographic Real Pirates website said "commissioned in London in 1715,the Whydah was originally built to carry slaves from Africa to the New World cramped compartments in the ship's hold were constructed to house human cargo on their journey to Caribbean sugar plantations.As a slave ship,the Whydah's state-of-the art design included a sleek silhouette that made the ship unusually fast and maneuverable,An arsenal of weapons provided defense against attacks by African & European warships-or pirates."
The whydah left on her main voyage in the early 1716,traveling out the English
Channel and into the Atlantic,where she then turned South toward Africa.
Like other save ships,she worked her way around the West Africa coast from
modern Gambia and Senegal to Nigeria and Benin,picking up captives along the way.
Eventually she landed in Quidah (Wee-dah)-the slave port from which the Whydah had taken her name.
On the evening of of April 26,1717,a dense fog rolled in.An arctic gale from Canada
was colliding with a warm front moving northward from the Caribbbean.Their
confluence produced one of the worst storms ever to strike cape cod.The noreastern hit the Whydah full force.The ship ran hard around on a sandbar.The
mainmast and other rigging snapped like twigs,and Whydah rolled over.
The beach was just 500 feet away,the bitter ocean temperatures were
cold enough to kill the strongest swimmer within minutes.
Of the 146 men aboard the Whydah that night,only two survived.Somehow Thomas
Davis,the carpenter,and John Julian,the Miskito pilot,managed to swim to shore and scale the steep sand cliffs.Young John King-the boy who threatened to kill himself if he couldn't join the pirate crew-did not survive.He died pinned to the seabed by a cannon,his leg bone,shoe,and stocking,later discovered by Barry Clifford's Whydah
expedition.