Black Caesar, the Pirate & Curaçao
African Chieftain Origin
Unlike other pirates of his day, who were European sailors turned to piracy, Black Caesar was said to have been a West African chieftain, he was deceived, captured, and transported across the Atlantic in the hold of a slave ship—until fortune, in the form of a violent storm, intervened. Shipwrecked off the Florida coast, Caesar and a small contingent of fellow captives overpowered their captors, seized weapons, and vanished into the Caribbean’s vast, lawless expanse.
Black Caesar & Curaçao
Though most commonly associated with the Florida Keys, Black Caesar’s reach extended deep into the Caribbean, and Curaçao—an entrepôt of trade, contraband, and, at times, human misery—was a natural theatre for his exploits. The island’s status as a Dutch free port made it an economic hub, but also a magnet for less scrupulous dealings. Caesar’s men operated in the shadows of Willemstad, gathering intelligence on outgoing ships, their cargo, and their vulnerabilities.
Piracy and commerce were often uneasy bedfellows. Some Curaçaoan merchants, keen to circumvent official taxation or embargoes, found in Black Caesar an eager—if unpredictable—business partner. Stolen goods could find their way into the island’s bustling market, while whispered accounts suggest that Caesar took particular delight in intercepting slave ships bound for Curaçao, freeing captives, and sending their captors to the bottom of the sea.
Ex-Slaves
Caesar was no lone marauder. He commanded a following—a coalition of escaped slaves, former indentured servants, deserters, and criminals—for whom piracy was not merely a means of enrichment, but often the only viable alternative to servitude.
His tactics were as sophisticated as they were ruthless. Ships were captured through deception—Caesar’s crew would pose as marooned sailors, luring in would-be rescuers before seizing their vessel—or through direct assault, relying on superior numbers and an intimate knowledge of local waters. Some reports suggest that Black Caesar maintained hidden anchorages along Curaçao’s less accessible inlets, where plundered goods could be quietly transferred to cooperative merchants.
Enemy of Empire
By the latter years of his career, Black Caesar had risen to prominence among the Caribbean’s pirate elite. He was among the lieutenants of Edward Teach—better known as Blackbeard—aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a flagship that briefly commanded the entire shipping lanes of the West Indies.
His final act, at least in the official record, came in 1718, when Blackbeard fell in battle against the British Navy off the coast of North Carolina. Some accounts claim Caesar was captured, brought to Virginia, and hanged. Others, however, suggest a different fate: that he slipped away amid the chaos, returning to the Caribbean, possibly even Curaçao, under an assumed identity.
