5 Chapter 4 Queen Anne's Revenge

Chapter 4 Queen Anne's Revenge As Blackbeard captured more and more ships, he created a small fleet. A fleet is a group of ships that sail together. However, even his growing fleet did not have enough room to hold all the looted cargo.

While sailing near the island of Saint Vincent late in 1717, the Revenge and the smaller ships Teach had stolen came upon La Concorde. This was a very large French ship packed with slaves. The slaves had been captured in what is now the country of Benin in Africa. The ship was carrying them to markets in French colonies such as Haiti and Martinique, where they would be sold to plantation owners. To make room for more slaves on board, many of its cannons had been left behind.

La Concorde had been at sea for more than two months. More than fifty of the five hundred slaves had already died on the journey. The crew members of the ship were very sick. Many had scurvy. Only a few were healthy enough to sail the ship . . . or fight off a pirate attack. On November 28, 1717, the lookouts high atop the masts of the Revenge spotted the sails of the slave ship. Blackbeard ordered his helmsman, the sailor steering the ship, to head toward the sails in the distance. The small Revenge was a fastmoving ship, so there was no escape for La Concorde.

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THE SLAVE TRADE WHEN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES FORMED COLONIES IN THE WARMER AREAS OF THE NEW WORLD, THE COLONISTS ESTABLISHED PLANTATIONS. THESE WERE LARGE FARMS THAT RAISED CROPS SUCH AS RICE, SUGARCANE, TOBACCO, AND COTTON. THEY NEEDED A LOT OF PEOPLE TO WORK ON THOSE GIANT FARMS. THEY WANTED TO KEEP PRODUCTION LEVELS HIGH, AND COSTS LOW. IN ORDER TO MAKE THE MOST PROFIT FROM THEIR LAND AND CROPS, THEY DID NOT WANT TO PAY PEOPLE TO WORK ON THE PLANTATIONS. BEGINNING IN THE 1500S, NATIONS SUCH AS GREAT BRITAIN, THE NETHERLANDS, FRANCE, PORTUGAL, AND SPAIN CAPTURED PEOPLE ALONG THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA. SLAVE TRADERS LOADED THEM ONTO SHIPS AND TOOK THEM TO THE NEW WORLD COLONIES. THE VOYAGE WAS AWFUL FOR THE AFRICANS. THEY HAD VERY LITTLE ROOM ON THE BOATS, OFTEN NOT EVEN ENOUGH TO STAND. THEY WERE GIVEN ALMOST NO FOOD OR WATER, AND THEY WERE OFTEN VERY SICK. THOUSANDS DIED EVERY YEAR AT SEA, LONG

BEFORE THE SHIPS HAD REACHED THEIR FINAL DESTINATIONS. ONCE THE CAPTIVES ARRIVED IN THE COLONIES, THEY WERE SOLD AS SLAVES TO WORK IN THE FIELDS. SLAVES WERE TREATED AS PROPERTY, AND BOUGHT AND SOLD LIKE CATTLE. THEY HAD NO RIGHTS AND WERE OFTEN SEPARATED FROM THEIR FAMILIES. VERY SLOWLY, OTHER PEOPLE BEGAN TO REALIZE HOW HORRIBLE AND UNFAIR SLAVERY WAS. FRANCE ENDED SLAVERY IN ITS COLONIES IN 1794. GREAT BRITAIN ABOLISHED ITS SLAVE TRADE IN 1807. SLAVERY DID NOT END EVERYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES UNTIL THE CIVIL WAR WAS OVER, IN 1865. IT IS UNCERTAIN HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE CAPTURED IN AFRICA FROM THE 1500S TO THE 1800S. SOME ESTIMATES ARE AS HIGH AS TWELVE MILLION.