The Golden Age of Piracy and the introduction of the Slave Trade to Bristol occurred roughly at the same time. This is not a coincidence. Many, if not most, of the pirates served as seamen on slave ships, and robbing slavers was a lucrative source of income.
Below is a chronological listing of some of the significant events that tied Bristol to the slave trade.
1640s Some Bristol planters on Barbados purchase slaves from Dutch ships
1670 A London company "Royal African Company" is given the right to trade in slaves
1671 Bristolian, Sir John Yeamans, a Barbados planter, introduces slavery to North America when he takes a ship with 200 slaves on board to Charles Towne, Carolina
1686 Bristol ship "Society" fined for trying to import slaves into Virginia
1698 Bristol is legally allowed to enter the Slave Trade. The "Beginning" is Bristol's first slave ship
1700 Edmund Saunders begins his career. He will be responsible for over 30 slave voyages
1704 There are about 4 slaver sailings a year from Bristol
1705 The "Berkeley Galley" is launched, Bristol's largest slaver with a capacity of 350 slaves
1740 Last Voyage of the "Berkeley Galley". Edmund Saunders is bankrupt
1746 Saunders dies
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Sir John Yeamans
The founding of Charleston South Carolina
The largest brewery in Bristol in the 1640s was owned by John Yeamans.One of his sons founded Charleston, South Carolina, and another was Mayor of Bristol.
In the early 1600s John Yeamans owned Bristol's largest brewery. It was much later sold to the Saunders family, who ran it for a hundred years. It eventually became the Georges' and then the Courage Brewery. Yeamans had 13 children, John was the eldest (born in 1610) and Robert was born in 1616.
Sir John Yeamans (as he later became) was one of the early settlers to prosper on the Caribbean island of Barbados. He owned a sugar plantation in Barbados.
He married his second wife in 1650 in very despicable circumstances. He poisoned her husband, Col Berringer, married Margaret, and acquired their estate.
In 1663 along with several residents of Barbados he purchased from the Indians a tract of land thirty-two miles square on the Cape Fear river, North Carolina. Sir John was appointed their governor and in the autumn of 1665 he arrived from Barbadoes with a band of emigrants and founded a town. However in 3 years it failed and was abandoned. Yeamans returned to the West Indies.
In 1670 with three ship-loads of emigrants that had arrived from England Yeamans founded a settlement further south at Charles Town on the Ashley river for the 8 Proprietors that the King had bestowed the land rights upon. John Lock, Sir John Yeamans, and James Carteret were created landgraves.
Yeamans would have become Governor, but he is listed as the 3rd Governor only because he did not arrive with the original settlers. He arrived several months later, and the 80 yr old governor Sayles he appointed in his absence had died. He then had to remove Sayles' replacement and he then took over.
In 1671 Dutch emigrants arrived from New York and others from Holland, and Sir John arrived from Barbadoes with 200 African slaves, the first that were landed in any numbers on the North American continent. He imported the slaves to grab the largest plantation, qualifying for an additional 100 acres for each slave.
Sir John Yeamans was not a good governor. He proved to be "a sordid calculator," bent only on acquiring a fortune. He only enriched himself, exporting food during a shortage.
In 1674 Yeamans was removed from office.
He died of disease in Charles Towne in August 1674.
His descendents (the Moores) became very prominent in the following half century and his son and his descendents became slave dealers.
Yeamans’ brother Robert was the Sheriff, Mayor (in 1669) and Chief Magistrate of Bristol, as well as a ship owner and a merchant, who had an early involvement in the Caribbean trade. Redland Court was owned by Sir Robert Yeamans in the 1680s. He died childless. Sir John’s grandson, Colonel Robert Yeamans of Barbados, eventually inherited Redland Court.
Captain Edmund Saunders
GUINEA STREET was named after the Gold Guinea Coast it was a main area of piratical activity in the 1700s and comprised of a squalid area of narrow lanes
Bristol's busiest slave Captain lived in 12 Guinea Street
Captain Edmund Saunders lived in Guinea Street, in Number 12.He personally was responsible for over 10,000 slaves being transported to Jamaica and America, and he was a warden in St Mary Redcliffe church!!!!
Berkeley Galley and Captain Saunders looted by pirates
The Berkeley Galley with Captain Edmund Saunders left Bristol on January 10, 1716. They bought over 200 slaves which were delivered to Jamaica in August 1716
They loaded up with Jamaican sugar and rum and enough provisions for the six week voyage back to Bristol and left in mid-September. A few days out they were attacked by the notoriously brutal James Martel and 80 pirates. Martel took £1,000 in cash, some valuables and all the ship’s provisions.
Bristol Ships captured by Pirates
In June 1708 the slavers William and Berkeley Galley sailed together from Bristol, bound for Africa. The Berkeley Galley, Master Peter Skinner, and Edmund Saunders probably as supercargo. French privateers attacked and captured the William, but the Berkeley Galley got away, later bought 340 slaves and delivered them to Jamaica.
The Amelia Galley sailed in August and the Stonedge Galley left in December, both to be taken by French privateers.
The slavers Happy Return and Joseph and Thomas were both captured by the French off Africa at Christmas 1709, but the Joseph and Thomas was later retaken in the Caribbean by an English ship. Half of the twenty Bristol slavers that sailed in 1710 were lost.
James Martel and the Berkeley Galley
Bristol Ships captured by Pirates
1705 - The Berkeley Galley launched
In 1705 the Berkeley Galley was built and launched for Robert Berkeley, a Bristol merchant. She was a large 200 ton slave ship, about 100 ft. long. A young Edmund Saunders would soon join her as an apprentice seaman.
1709 - Berkeley Galley becomes a privateer
In 1709 the Berkeley Galley and Captain Edmund Saunders were issued "Letters of Marque" and the slaver became a privateer for a year.
1716 - Berkeley Galley and Captain Saunders looted by James Martel
The Berkeley Galley with Captain Edmund Saunders left here on January 10, 1716. They bought over 200 slaves which were delivered to Jamaica in August 1716
They loaded up with Jamaican sugar and rum and enough provisions for the six week voyage back to Bristol and left in mid-September. A few days out they were attacked by the notoriously brutal James Martel and 80 pirates. Martel took £1,000 in cash, some valuables and all the ship’s provisions.
Cadogan Snow - 1719 Howel Davis
Captain Skinner murdered by pirates
In late 1718 a small Bristol slaver, the Cadogan Snow left, with Captain Skinner in command and Chief Mate Howel Davis, a Welshman from Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.
They were attacked and captured in port on the African coast at Sierra Leone by the pirate Edward England.
One of the pirates was Skinner’s ex-boatswain, probably a Bristolian, and he recognized Skinner. He was with Skinner on the previous voyage and had been removed.
He started to taunt Skinner and the situation turned decidedly nasty.
Some of the pirates started to torture Skinner. They tied him to the windless and pelted him with bottles and broken glass. They then untied him, whipping him around the deck until he collapsed.
They mocked him and finally told Skinner that because he had been such a good captain to his men he would die an easy death.
Where upon they executed him, with a bullet to the brain. Howel Davis joined the pirates and was given the Cadogan Snow. They went to Brazil and then Barbados where they surrendered the vessel. The merchants in Barbados received their cargo and the owners got their ship back when most of the crew returned with the ship to Bristol.
Morning Star - 1721 Thomas Anstis
The Morning Star, a Bristol slaver left Bristol in February 1721 with Captain James Cochett and 16 crew members, for Africa and Charles Town, South Carolina.
One of Bartholemew Roberts’ lieutenants, Thomas Anstis, had broken away from Roberts’ gang in Africa and had returned to the Caribbean.
In late 1721 he attacked and captured the Morning Star. He kept the ship, complete with its Bristol crew, and he sailed the Caribbean waters looting ships for a year.
By accident they wrecked it on a reef on the Grand Cayman Islands. Everybody got off the ship and onto the shore, including forty pirates and the members of the Morning Star’s original crew. They were all rounded up but not charged with piracy as it was determined that they were all coerced into participating.
Anstis and a few men escaped on another ship but he was killed on land.
Just a few of the pirates managed to hide on an island and eventually stole a sloop that visited into the harbor. They sailed this sloop all the way to England and sank it near Bristol, and then quietly returned to their homes.
Edward England and the Peterborough - 1719
In February 1719 the Bensworth sailed from Bristol, with Nicholas Gardner as the master, headed to Africa for slaves and Virginia for tobacco. The Peterborough, with John Owen as the Master followed on 23 May 1719, both as they did almost every year.
In May the Bensworth was moored at Cape Corso, Africa buying slaves with 6 other ships.
Edward England attacked and looted the ship and burned it to the water line.
Twelve members of the thirty man crew joined England’s gang as pirates. 12 more Bristol pirates.
Three months laterEdward England attacked the Peterborough near Cape Corso in August. He decided to keep the large slaver and make it his own war-ship.
He soon decided that it was too dangerous for him to spend any more time in African waters and they sailed south, to the Indian Ocean and the island of Madagascar, where he lived until his death.
Royal Fortune - 1721 Bartholomew Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 1682.
He was third mate on a Bristol slaver in 1719 off the coast of Africa, when fellow Welshman, Howell Davis, attacked. Roberts joined Davis, who was killed a few weeks later on Sao Tome. Roberts led the pirates to safety & was elected to replace their dead captain.
They then sailed across the Atlantic to South America. A few weeks later they came upon a fleet of forty-two Portuguese treasure galleons & two warships anchored off the coast of Brazil. The pirates sailed alongside the heaviest laden ship & fired a full broadside. They boarded the ship, captured it & headed for the open sea, outrunning the pursuing warships. They acquired the cargo including jewels & 40,000 gold moidores ($130,000) & a diamond studded gold cross, intended for King of Portugal.
They raided north through the West Indies and up as far as Newfoundland. They sailed into Trepassey in Newfoundland, in a sloop with only ten guns & sixty men. With 'colors flying, drums beating & trumpets sounding.' The crews of the twenty-two ships at anchor in the harbor, immediately withdrew & fled to safety on shore.
Roberts had several ships; his original ships, the Ranger & then other vessels he captured, all three he renamed Royal Fortune. One (the second) was a Bristol ship, the third French.
Some time later, Roberts & his men were back in the West Indies. They escaped warships from the islands of Martinique and Barbados, that were out to get him.
Roberts ranged back to Africa. Captain Chaloner Ogle, commander of the warship Swallow, had been sent to capture him. On Feburary 5, 1722, Ogle found Roberts & his three ships anchored in Cape Lopez, West Africa. Believing that the Swallow was a merchantman, Roberts sent the Ranger out after her. She headed for open seas. Out of sight of the harbor, Ogle ordered his men to attack. Ten pirates were killed & twenty wounded before surrendering. Ogle swiftly returned to Cape Lopez for the remaining pirates. Roberts, seeing that the Swallow was a warship, ordered the Royal Fortune to sail for the open seas. The Swallow heading straight for the Royal Fortune and fired a broadside which toppled the Royal Fortunes mizzenmast. When the smoke cleared, Roberts was slumped over a cannon, dead.
Bartholomew Roberts, was a strict disciplinarian. He never drank liquor, only tea. He held religious services aboard ship & in the four years that he raged upon the seas he & his men had captured & plundered more than 400 ships.
Stede Bonnet
Stede Bonnet left Blackbeard in June 1718 with a gang of pirates that Blackbeard cut loose. They robbed some ships including 2 Bristol Snows in July 1718 near Philadelphia, en route to Bristol. The take was some goods and 150 pounds.
They headed south with their vessels. They took shelter in the River Fear at Cape Fear, North Carolina.
By happenchance they were attacked and captured by a detachment from Charles Town, South Carolina, who were looking for Charles Vane.
In the battle, 7 pirates were killed and 35 captured. About half of Bonnet's crew were from America or Jamaica, and half from Great Britain. At least 9 were English, 5 Scottish, 1 Irishman and there was a Dutchman, and a Portuguese.
On Saturday November 8 1718 23 of them were hanged at White Point, Charles Town, including Thomas Price and Henry Virgin, both from Bristol.
Horrors of Slavery
17th century Brass manillas and copper cooking vessels found in an excavation of the cellars of the Llandoger Trow tavern in King street recently. They were used for barter with the African tribal Kings and manufactured upstream on the banks of the River Froome by the Quaker families.
Caravans of slaves, with foot shackles and neck linkage, were marched from many hundreds of miles to the Guinea coastline Forts by the African Kings, who looted their outposts to provide labour, which they could sell for $9 worth of goods, usually bottles of spirits and cooking utensils, which were all made in Bristol.
The glass from the sandstone & kilns of Redcliffe , locations nos 10 to 12 on the pirate walk. Branding with a red hot silver iron the initials of the plantation owner ,on all new arrivals in the Colony. The slaves that had survived the crossing of the ocean were shackled together in the slave markets of the coastal ports. They had been fattened up, cleaned & polished to obtain the best prices at auction.
Tread mills were used on the Sugar islands which lacked running water to turn the grinding mills. the unfortunate slaves were tied to a rail along the top, if they slackened they were cut down whipped and their hair cut off. there was only a 20 minute period to break up the sugar cane stalks before the sap crytallised after being cut, so everyone worked fast.
It needed Edward Colston of Bristol to seal the cane into hogsheads immediately after being reaped and transport them to the River Avon, where he set up the first sugar refinery, and so made his fortune from the growing demand to sweeten tea by the middle classes in England.
Life below decks was vile, over one third did not survive the journey from Africa where they had never seen the open sea before. The unpleasant cramped conditions allowed infections to spread rapidly. The dead were thrown over the side to the waiting sharks..You could always tell a slaver by the number of sharks that followed it and the bad smell, downwind.
Bristol sailors had to be Press Ganged to serve on these ships as they could also be dumped overboard as they reached the destination port by the Captain, who could then have a larger share of the profits.