- "The slave trade isn't a pleasant business, granted, but it is extremely lucrative. It's very good business. One can't afford these days to be...finicky."
- ―Cutler Beckett to Jack Sparrow
Slavery was the practice of owning a human being. Slavery can be traced back to the earliest records, such as the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC), which refers to it as an established institution. Slavery typically required a shortage of labor and a surplus of land to be viable. A ship which transported slaves was called the slave ship. African slaves were often called black gold[1].
History[]
- "I'll haul any cargo you assign me, even powder, dangerous as that can be. But I won't transport slaves."
- ―Jack Sparrow to Cutler Beckett
During their reign of terror in the Mediterranean Sea, the Barbary Corsairs organized many raids on European coastal towns and villages, mainly in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, but also in the British Isles, the Netherlands and as far away as Iceland. The main purpose of their attacks was to capture Christian slaves for the Muslim market in North Africa and the Middle East. African slaves were transported to Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central & South America, starting very early in the 16th century. Many African slaves managed to escape slavery by learning to practice magic.
Landowners in the American colonies originally met their need for forced labor by enslaving a limited number of Natives, and "hiring" many more European indentured servants. In exchange for their transportation across the Atlantic Ocean, the servants committed to work for the landowner for 4 to 7 years. A few slaves were imported from Africa as early as 1619. With the spread of tobacco farming in the 1670's, and the diminishing number of people willing to sign-on as indentured servants in the 1680's, increasing numbers of slaves were brought in from Africa. They replaced Native American slaves, who were found to be susceptible to diseases of European origin. The slave trade was practiced by merchants from all European colonial powers, including England, France, Holland and Spain.
During the Spanish conquest of the New World, the villagers of Raven's Cove were forced by the Conquistador El Patron to work as slaves in his mines and craft swords for him. These swords were cursed by the breath of these villagers, and had extraordinary cursed powers.
During the Age of Piracy, slave trading became and was widespread in the Caribbean, as its economy was gradually underpinned by a slave-based plantation system. It was slave trade which replaced piracy as the main branch of economy of Port Royal, which marked the end of the buccaneering era in Jamaica. Some escaped slaves often joined pirate crews, like Gombo, who became a Pirate Lord known as Gentleman Jocard.[2][3][4] Certain pirate captains, including King Samuel and Bartholomew Roberts, sometimes engaged in slave trading; Roberts originally served as a third mate on the London-based slave ship Princess before abandoning the slave trade and turning to piracy. Tumen, a Mayan boy from the Yucatán Peninsula, was kidnapped from his village by pirates and sold into slavery.[5]
In 1717, a pirate captain Blackbeard captured La Concorde, a French slave ship, off the coast of Martinique. He refitted the ship and made it into his own flagship, renaming her the Queen Anne's Revenge. Before the battle of Ocracoke Inlet in 1718, one of the most dangerous members of Blackbeard's crew was Black Caesar, an African slave who escaped from his master.
The East India Trading Company was also involved in the transport of slaves from Africa to the Caribbean. Calabar was one of the major slave-trading ports of the EITC on the west coast of Africa. However, when Jack Sparrow, captain of the Wicked Wench, refused to carry out this sinful task, Cutler Beckett ordered Sparrow's ship destroyed and Sparrow himself branded a pirate.[6][7][8] Some pirates captured by the EITC were forced to work as slaves in the gold mines like Beckett's Quarry on Padres Del Fuego.[9]
Several members of Hector Barbossa's cursed crew members aboard the Black Pearl were escaped slaves from West Africa and the island of Hispaniola.[10] In a terrifying bargain with Davy Jones, Jack Sparrow had just three days to find 100 human souls, with Will Turner used as a "good faith payment." If Jack succeeded, he will be a free man. But if he failed, he faced a life of slavery, serving Jones on the Flying Dutchman.[11][12][13]
Behind the scenes[]
- "I also kidnapped you - induced your sale into slavery. And let’s not forget the tea - the mutiny -"
- ―Jack Sparrow to Carina Smyth
- Slavery and the general concept of slaves were first mentioned in the official Pirates of the Caribbean website and in reference books Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide and |The Complete Visual Guide.[12][13] Gentleman Jocard was introduced as a former slave turned pirate in the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End junior novelization,[3] with a backstory detailed in Jocard's the "Inside the Brethren Court" special feature for the At World's End DVD release in December 2007,[14] as well as the prequel Rob Kidd book Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean, published in October 2008.[4] The At World's End junior novelization also indirectly mentioned Jack Sparrow being contracted to transport a cargo of human beings as slaves for Cutler Beckett,[3] a backstory that was explored further in A. C. Crispin's prequel novel The Price of Freedom.[8]
- In real-world history, the East India Trading Company was never involved in the transportation of slaves from West Africa to the New World. The import of slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas was done by the Royal African Company. Though the East India Company officials did collect slaves in West Africa, those slaves were sent to the Company's settlements in South Africa, East Africa, India, and Asia.
- One of the ideas for Chris Schweizer's Pirates of the Caribbean comic book series was to have James Norrington and his crew surviving the hurricane off Tripoli and being captured by the Barbary Corsairs and eventually becoming slaves/rowers aboard a galley.[15]
- In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early draft of the Dead Men Tell No Tales script the sign in front of the Swift and Sons Chart House said "NO DOGS, SLAVES OR WOMEN ALLOWED".[16]
Appearances[]
- The Price of Freedom
- Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean (First appearance)
- Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters
- Pirates of the Caribbean Online
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Indirect mention only) (deleted scene)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization) (First mentioned) (Indirect mention only)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: The Movie Storybook (Indirect mention only)
Sources[]
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide (First identified as slavery)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
- The Pirates' Guidelines
- Inside the Brethren Court
Notes and references[]
- ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter One.
- ↑ At World's End Map - timeline
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean
- ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Age of Bronze, p3.
- ↑ Pirate 101: "Figure Head"
- ↑ The Pirates' Guidelines
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Price of Freedom
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean Online
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, p. 34
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, p. 60
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ "I wasn’t planning on delving into Groves much, at least not unless the series went into a second arc/season, but Gillette was going to be a major player in the hurricane story, and would’ve been captured with Norrington and some of the others by the Corsairs in its aftermath and forced to row aboard a galley ship. Had we done that second season, Norrington would’ve led a revolt that would free the navy men, and get them back to the Caribbean." - Chris Schweizer
- ↑ Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013