If a Pirate I Must Be is a story of the many adventures of the early eighteenth century pirate Bartholomew Roberts, also known as Black Bart. Although many perceive pirates as rum drinking, treasure hunting savages, Black Bart was quite the opposite. Black Bart was a simple man who at first was reluctant to become a pirate. This book clearly illustrates why Black Bart is said to be the most successful pirate living during the Golden Age of Piracy. Also this book clearly states how Black Bart did affect the Caribbean and other economies more than one would expect.
Roberts was born in May of 1862 in the Village if Casnewydd Bach, in south Wales. While growing up, Bartholomew always wished to be on the sea. He first got a shot at the sea through joining the Royal British Navy. Roberts and the crew would sail to the West Coast of Africa. There the ship he sailed on, The Princess, would pick up and transport slaves. The Slave Trade was a very difficult task for the crews. “Roberts knew that by the end of his voyage it was more likely he would be dead than one of the slaves. Studies later in the century showed that more than one in five if the slaving crews died during the Course of the three-legged journey between Europe, Africa and the West Indies, compared to one in eight of the slaves – although they, of course, were on board for only one leg of the journey.” (Page 4) This is the first instance in the book where Roberts clearly has impact on the economies of Africa and all other countries involved in the Slave Trade. The Slave Trade was a huge business; millions of Africans were sold as slaves annually.
On June 6, 1719 along the Gold Coast of West Africa, pirates captured the Princess.
Leading the pirates who captured the Princess was captain Howell Davis with his two ships, the Royal Rover and the Royal James. Davis was also a Welshman, and was born only a few miles south of the town where Rogers was born. Thirty-four men of the Princess’ crew including Roberts were forced to join the Davis’ crew. “As Roberts looked around him on the Royal Rover, one of the most striking features of Davis’ crew was that almost a third of the men were black.” (Page 42-43) It is ironic that Roberts first was at sea transporting black men as slaves, now he is working along side of them as his equals.
He explains in great detail of how a black woman was punished because she helped save the life of the slave driver who was transporting her and fifty-nine other slaves. This article further proves David Walker’s argument in which Slaves are men too and are not treated, as they should
The symbols and language used in “Battle Royal” allow readers to understand the concept of being black in America; fighting for equality. Symbols such as the white blindfold, stripper, and battle itself all give a suggestion about how the unnamed protagonist felt, but more importantly, Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” depicts the difficult struggles facing the black man in what’s supposed to be a post-slavery era.
Throughout the many years that the Robin Johns were alive and even enslaved much cross-cultural exchange occurred. From the impact on the population of both European and African countries to the first glimpse of Christianity on the African continent every land of the time was subject to the effects of the slave trade. Not only did this trade change the course of history, it reverberates in every country and civilization in the world
At the start of the film, pirate Hector Barbossa is shown as a new privateer for the English. It is revealed that Captain Barbossa is not sailing the seas for the King, but instead for his own personal desires. Elements such as mermaids, the “Fountain of Youth”, and everlasting life are not realistic and are clearly added to the film for entertainment value. However, this film could be helpful in sparking an interest in the general public on the subject of pirates. The film includes actual pirates, like Edward Teach, that may spark an interest in a viewer enough to look into the character.
The black man in the Deep South of America was greatly despised during the 1950’s. The world that the Negroes lived in was not the same as whites in their society. In this book, John Howard Griffin Sacrifices his life as a middle-class white man and becomes a dirt poor Negro, trying to survive in the South. He simply did all of this in order to bring out the truth about what it is really and truly like to be a Negro in the South during the 1950’s.
Blackbeard began his pirating career sometime after 1713, as an ordinary crewmember aboard a Jamaican sloop commanded by the pirate Benjamin Hornigold. In 1716, Hornigold supplied Teach with a small crew, and a small captured vessel to command. By 1717 Hornigold and Teach were sailing in alliance, and together were feared throughout the seas. In November 1717, Hornigold and Teach were able to capture a 26 gun French vessel called the Concorde (recent research has shown that the vessel had originally been built in Great Britain). Blackbeard’s pirate partner, Hornigold, decided to take advantage of a recent offer of general amnesty from the British Crown- and retire in comfort. Teach rejected t...
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
Reilly, "Captain Thomas Phillips: Buying Slaves in 1693." Worlds of History, Volume Two: Since 1400: A Comparative Reader, July, 2010, [623-629].
The native Africans' heritage and way of life were forever altered by the white slave drivers who took them into captivity in the 18th century. Along with their freedom, slaves were also robbed of their culture and consequently their identities. They became property instead of people, leaving them at the hands of merciless slave owners. Their quest to reclaim their stolen identities was a long and difficult struggle, especially in the years following the Civil War and the subsequent release of their people from bondage. In Ralph Ellison's 1948 short story "Battle Royal," he uses the point of view of a young black man living in the south to convey the theme of racial identity crisis that faced African Americans in the United States during the early to mid 20th century.
Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship A Human History. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2007. Print.
On the second leg of this trade slaves were transported to the West Indies, this leg was called the middle passage. This part was horrible for the slaves. About 50% of all the slaves on one ship would not make it to the West Indies because of disease or brutal mistreatment. Hundreds of men, women and children were cramped together for most of the journey, occasionally able to move an almost decent amount. On the third leg of the journey slaves were traded for sugar, molasses and other products.
“Line of Color, Sex, and Service: Sexual Coercion in the Early Republic” is a publication that discusses two women, Rachel Davis and Harriet Jacobs. This story explains the lives of both Rachel and Harriet and their relationship between their masters. Rachel, a young white girl around the age of fourteen was an indentured servant who belonged to William and Becky Cress. Harriet, on the other hand, was born an enslaved African American and became the slave of James and Mary Norcom. This publication gives various accounts of their masters mistreating them and how it was dealt with.
England. In separate sections he describes the masters, servants, and slaves of the island. In addition to Ligon’s interpretations of the physical and cultural characteristics of the “Negroes,” he offers personal experiences to illustrate the master-slave relationships that had evolved on Barbados
Writing around the same time period as Phillips, though from the obverse vantage, was Richard Wright. Wright’s essay, “The Inheritors of Slavery,” was not presented at the American Historical Society’s annual meeting. His piece is not festooned with foot-notes or carefully sourced. It was written only about a decade after Phillips’s, and meant to be published as a complement to a series of Farm Credit Administration photographs of black Americans. Wright was not an academic writing for an audience of his peers; he was a novelist acceding to a request from a publisher. His essay is naturally of a more literary bent than Phillips’s, and, because he was a black man writing ...
pirate as he is portrayed in the beginning of the text nor is he the