Slavery

Slavery is 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 requires a shortage of labor and a surplus of land to be viable. A ship which transports slaves is called the slave ship.

History
Black slaves from Africa were transported to Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central & South America, starting very early in the 16th century.

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. Slave trade was practiced by all European colonial powers: England France, Holland and Spain.

During the Age of Piracy, a slave trade was widespread in the Caribbean. 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. Some pirate captains, like King Samuel, sometimes engaged in slave trading.

In 1717, a pirate captain Blackbeard captured La Concorde de Nantes, a French slave ship, off the coast of Martinique. He turned the ship into his own flagship and renamed her the Queen Anne's Revenge.

The East India Trading Company was also involved in the transport of slaves from Africa to the Caribbean. However, when Jack Sparrow, captain of the Wicked Wench, refused to carry out this sinful task, Lord Cutler Beckett ordered Sparrow's ship destroyed and Sparrow himself branded a pirate. Some pirates captured by the EITC were forced to work as slaves in the gold mines like Beckett's Quarry on Padres Del Fuego.