This week’s open thread highlighted black pirates and their plight. Today I will highlight several unknown black pirates.
In 1731 Juan Andres (Andresote) was the leader of some runaway slaves and Indians. These villains plundered and murdered along the coast of Venezuela. Authorities assumed he had died when two years later the attacks ceased. In reality, he merely moved to the safety of Curacao before resuming his bloody assaults.
One hundred years after Black Caesar died, another man of mixed parentage adopted his name. Black Caesar (II) attacked ships off Florida’s east coast, but in 1828, President Andrew Jackson ordered the area be swept of pirates. Black Caesar (II) escaped to the west coast. One story says he was captured and burned to death, but there is no definitive record as to his fate.
Peter Cloise, a slave, became a pirate after Edward Davis took him from his owner in 1679. They became close companions and went on pirating expeditions in the Caribbean and along South America’s Pacific coast. He and a group of pirates made the first endowment to the College of William and Mary. After Davis’ ship put into Philadelphia in May 1688, Cloise was arrested. His fate remains unknown.
Little is known of Domingo Eucalla’s pirating career, but he and ten others were hanged in Kingston, Jamaica on 7 February 1823. Before he died, he gave a passionate speech and a prayer. He showed the most courage of the pirates awaiting death that day.
Francisco Farnondo captured 250,000 pieces of eight in a single incident. Afterward, he retired.
Although his true name has been lost, Old South, a mulatto, led the men who sailed aboard Good Fortune.
Stewart, a mulatto, and three whites seized the Amity off the coast of Virginia in 1785. They swore to “Perform on a Cruce [cruise] In Defense of Our Selves and Against all Other Nation and Nations.” If any one of them broke these articles, they agreed the guilty party would “Be Put to Death or any Punishment that the Rest shal think they Justley Deserv.”
Hendrick van der Heul served as quartermaster aboard Captain Kidd’s vessel.
Diego de los Reyes, a mulatto from Cuba, earned the nickname “Diego Lucifer.” He hunted during the 1630s and 1640s.
***Information courtesy of Wikipedia.org and http://www.cindyvallar.com/blackpirates.html***