Black Experiences in Histories of Pirates, Plunder, and Atlantic Slavery with Dr. Hannah Francis

The famed Pirate Captain Blackbeard’s ship Queen Anne’s Revenge was originally a French slave-trading vessel called La Concorde, which he along with his crew members captured in the midst of one of its slave-trading missions. Perhaps due to the construction of the archive, much of the research into this historical incident focuses on Blackbeard, La Concorde’s owner René Montaudouin, La Concorde’s Captain Pierre Dosset, La Concorde’s Lieutenant François Ernaud, and Colonial French Caribbean government officials. Yet, African descended people such as the enslaved captives are at the center of this story.

“Reconstructing Black Experiences in Histories of Pirates, Plunder, and Atlantic Slavery” discusses what the primary documents reveal about the African descended people aboard La Concorde/Queen Anne’s Revenge. Additionally, the presentation illuminates how an interdisciplinary approach combining both history and archeology enhances the historical narrative surrounding the Black experience on La Concorde/Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Hannah J. Francis is an Assistant Professor in the Africana Studies Department at the University of Rhode Island. She teaches courses on the circulation of ideas, goods, and people, especially African descended people in the Atlantic World. In 2022, she contributed “Maritime Miscommunication: La Concorde's Final Voyage” to the edited collection Excavating Histories of the Slave-Trade and Pirate Ships. She lives in Southern Rhode Island.