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Henri Caesar | |
|---|---|
| Born | fl. 1791 |
| Died | 1830 (aged 38–39) |
| Piratical career | |
| Nickname | Black Caesar |
| Type | Pirate |
| Years active | 1805-1831 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Base of operations | Port-de-Paix |
Henri Caesar, also known asBlack Caesar, (fl. 1791–1830) was a legendary 19th-centuryHaitian revolutionary and pirate. Efforts to find historical evidence of his existence have been unsuccessful. According to works of fiction, he was a participant in theHaitian Revolution underDutty Boukman andToussaint Louverture as well as active in piracy for nearly a 30-year period during the early 19th century.[1]
Henri Caesar has been confused with a realpirate who was also known asBlack Caesar and operated from theFlorida Keys in the early 1700s until being captured and hanged inWilliamsburg, Virginia in 1718.
Henri Caesar was supposedly born to a slave family kept by a French plantation owner known as Arnaut. He worked as ahouseboy on the estate and, as a young man, worked in the lumberyard. He was mistreated by the supervisor and later killed the man during theslave insurrection, torturing him with asaw. Joining the rebel forces led byDutty Boukman andToussaint Louverture, he remained with the revolution until its independence fromFrance in 1804, when he left to try his luck at sea. Based inPort-de-Paix, he captured a Spanish ship in 1805 and soon began attacking small villages and lone vessels nearCuba andthe Bahamas from his base in southernSpanish Florida. Adopting the name Black Caesar, he was very successful during his piratical career before his disappearance in 1830.[2]
His fate is uncertain. He may have fled the area after PresidentAndrew Jackson ordered an expedition against pirates active on the Florida coast after its purchase by theUnited States in 1821. One version of his story says that he was captured, taken toKey West, and burned to death while tied to a tree. The widow of a preacher whose eyes had been burned out under torture from Black Caesar was allowed light the fire.[3]
Caesar is supposed to have buried between $2 and $6 million at one of more locations insouthwest Florida includingPine Island,White Horse Key,Marco Island, Elliot Key andSanibel Island, although none has ever been recovered. He is sometimes associated withJose Gaspar, another mythical pirate who supposedly operated in the same area at about the same time.
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