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The return of privateering
In 1635, there were still people who dreamed of reviving the Elizabethan legacy. There’s a lot of good to be said about the Stuarts – they were less oppressive, less violent, more easygoing than their Tudor predecessors, but to many 17th Century Englishmen, there was just something disappointing about them. England was no longer boldly leading the defense of Protestantism against the Spanish, and ruled by a virgin queen surrounded by bold, dashing, romantic heroes … It was pragmatically working under monarchs who just weren’t all that impressive.
Introduction
Sir Walter Raleigh had been executed almost two decades before, and the prince who had dreamed of rekindling the Elizabethan age had also died. And, peace with Spain was solidified, and only briefly and inglouriously broken at Cadiz. England had a Catholic queen, an Arminian archbishop, and meanwhile Europe was in the middle of the Thirty Years War.
And, Colonization efforts – one of the last avenues left for Elizabethan romanticism – followed the Stuart model. Even though Jamestown was founded just four years after Elizabeth’s death, by people who had begun their exploration and sailing while she was in power, it was a Stuart colony. Even today, there’s a massive gap between how we perceive the Jamestown settlers, and how we perceive the Elizabethan explorers, even though the two groups were essentially contemporaries. And, there’s a reason for that. Jamestown lacked the militant nature of Elizabethan ventures. Attempts to use Virginia as a privateering base were thoroughly rejected on both sides of the Atlantic, and that ended any aspirations to revive the Elizabethan spirit in North America.
New England colonies were explicitly founded to promote protestantism, but they had no aspirations of Elizabethan glory. By choice, they were too far from the Spanish to inflict real harm, and they focused instead on building a model society, only supporting the Protestant war effort via prayer and setting an example.
But Elizabethan ideals endured. There were still people who remembered the good old days, including quite a few of the Providence Island investors. And, they revived the vision in the colonial sphere. They weren’t just going to build a nice little Protestant colony. They were going to go to the heart of the Indies, set the foundation for English expansion that could directly threaten the Spanish empire, and import a number of captains and military officers. Civilians were always necessary, but this was a vision that involved privateering, and more fundamentally, it involved a military aspect to defending Protestantism. It was about bold actions, daring confrontation, and defeating the enemy. Tudor boldness that erred on the side of brutality was infinitely preferable to Stuart peacemaking that erred on the side of weakness. Without its empire, Spain was nothing. Chipping away at that was the Elizabethan dream, and it was a dream the Providence Island company was built on. Not only was it nicely situated to enable future Central American expansion, it was perfectly located to attack the single richest Spanish shipping route, without which the Spanish treasury would be drained within a year.
Its members included those who had tried to use Virginia as a privateering base, like the Earl of Warwick, whose father had also participated in Raleigh’s attempted colonization of Guyana, and one of its prominent settlers was closely related to Roanoke governor Ralph Lane. The location was selected to annoy the Spanish. In fact, it was perfectly located to attack the single richest Spanish trade route, the route which funded a huge percent of the Spanish economy.
Of course, they got their charter a week before the permanent peace with Spain was finalized. Their letters of mark, which legalized privateering, stayed operational only temporarily while the king was unsure the peace would last. There was still plenty of opposition to Spain within England, both among Protestants who saw Spain as the great enemy, and among both Catholics and Protestants who preferred to focus on peace with France. And, there was one way to get more letters of mark. If the Spanish attacked the colony, and if they managed to survive the attack and keep hold of the island, they could apply for letters of reprisal, which granted them the right to privateer until they’d recouped the costs of what the Spanish had taken or destroyed. Elfrith had tried to provoke such an attack before the fortifications were complete, but he’d been confined to the island because of it. But, he was far from the only person in the colony or company with that dream.
But, in 1635, the colony was struggling along. The company was trying to find a replacement for Bell, whose three year term was up and who didn’t seem up to the task they’d given him. Sherrard’s accusations of his authoritarian tendencies particularly alarmed them. Bell complained that he wasn’t being paid the wages or given the servants he’d been promised, and the company continued to promise both without delivering. Sherrard continued to be beligerent, and when the company was presented with accusations that his refusal of the sacrament had enabled servant unrest which led to failed crops, they sent Sherrard a letter, chastising him and telling him they hoped he understood just how high a censure excommunication was, and that it was something which should be tenderly used, and not lightly removed, rather than something to be implemented on a whim.
Slaves made up the growing labor shortage, but quite a few of them were Catholic. Portuguese missionaries spent time in Africa, and the slaves had either escaped from or been stolen from the Spanish. Well, the Puritan colonists weren’t going to accept that, so destroyed all Crucifixes and any other Catholic images the slaves had, much to their horror. Servants were also upset with their lives on the Island. Many of them had been “Barbadosed,” or kidnapped and forced into indentured servitude, and they faced rougher treatment from Providence Island military settlers than they would have in England, or expected to in America. Plus, they had no promise of land or profit after their term was up. Rishworth emerged as the colony’s main agitator against slavery. After being kicked off and reinstated to the council, he began secretly visiting with the Africans, promising to attempt to win their liberty, and whether explicitly or not, encouraging them to escape. He was ordered to stop, but continued, even selling items to servants and slaves without their masters’ knowledge.
In spring, a group of slaves and servants stole a canoe and made their way to the mainland. The slaves said they wanted to get back to “their land,” in Central America, and the servants agreed. “This is no way to live. If you want to go back to your land, we’re going.” So, they traveled nearly 300 miles of ocean in their canoe, and finally landed on the coast. A few weeks later, alone, hungry and without supplies, they looked for the nearest help they could find, and one of the servants came across a Spaniard named Francisco Fernandes Fragoso. The servant didn’t speak Spanish, but he pointed to where his companions were and communicated what he could. All Fragoso could understand was “Negro, Negro,” and “Catalina,” referencing the Spanish name for Providence Island. He fed the boy some fish soup, and the boy led him to the rest of his party. The Africans raised their hands, and said they came in peace, and identified the Spanish masters they’d been stolen from. Fragoso had the six young men fed and bathed, and sent for a Justice of the Peace from the nearby town of Cartagena. Then, the Spanish asked the group about Providence Island. They all claimed to be Catholic, and described the settlement on Providence Island. They said Diego el Mulato had been there, and told the Spanish about its fortifications and cannons. The Africans complained about the destruction of rosaries and crosses, and they were all tired of eating potatoes, which the Spanish were amusedly disgusted to hear they were eating raw.
The news, though, was alarming for the Spanish. The location was dangerous, and if they were entertaining privateers like Diego el Mulato, they could devastate the Spanish economy. But legally, they couldn’t just attack. The Spanish empire was bureaucratic, and they had to inform Madrid of the discovery, and ask for permission to attack. And, the Spanish king wasn’t ready to commit to that. He had his hands full with pressing problems in Northern Italy, France, Germany and Flanders. But, a few months later, there was a lull, with the most pressing issues resolved, and he turned his attention to Providence Island. Eliminating the threat, he decided, was worth the risk to peace with England. He ordered it destroyed, and a fleet assembled in Cartagena to do just that.
Back in Providence Island, rumors of imminent attack began to circulate. The Caribbean was a network of island colonies and people sailing from place to place, so news traveled fast. Settlers asked Bell for permission to leave, but Bell refused, telling them that if they left they’d be even more likely be captured, and to end up being Spanish slaves. Their best chance was to fight. Axe was in charge. The island was fortified, and they had weapons. Bell also approached the island’s remaining slaves, and told them that if they survived this battle, he’d let them have their freedom.
Then, one day in July, the colonists saw three ships in the main harbor. 250 troops landed, and they pushed forward toward the settlement. The settlers pelted them with musket fire, and they retreated. After regrouping, they advanced again, but again were repelled by the muskets. And a third time. The two sides stood off with each other, and the Spanish commander sent a scout to Fort Warwick under a flag of truce, with a letter telling the English to surrender on the penalty of piracy, removing all doubt that defeat meant extermination. And Bell responded with what I think is the most endearingly in-character response I’ve ever heard. He explained that according to his orders, he would need authorization from his London investors before abandoning the island. He would write to London asking for permission, and if he got the permission, they’d leave within a year, but until then, he was obliged to defend company property from all trespassers.
Of course, the Spanish weren’t going to agree to those terms, but they also couldn’t get to Ft. Warwick. So, they retreated, reloaded onto their ships and went to the Northern side of the island, which Axe had left virtually unfortified because it was naturally so difficult to approach. There, there was a thin neck of land connecting the main island to a smaller island, and it was extremely difficult to sail against the current. As they sailed, Axe realized what they were doing, and ordered the colonists to drag their cannons North. They fired the cannons, as the Spanish tried to approach the land, and fired their own guns back. The fighting was fierce, but the Spanish couldn’t gain the upper hand. They rode at anchor for another week, as musketfire and rough seas damaged their ships, but ultimately gave up and sailed back to Cartagena.
The colonists had repelled their first Spanish attack. I mean, I don’t think it’s even possible to overstate how relieved they must have been. They grew up hearing the stories of Fort Caroline, and of Raleigh’s Trinidad colony. They’d seen first hand what had happened on Association Island. They had chosen to go to the colony which was modeling itself on the most romantic of Elizabethan ideals, but the very real risk associated with that is that they faced more danger of Spanish extermination than any colony in nearly 4 decades. And especially for the civilians and servants who’d never fought in any sort of a battle? How relieved must they have been?
And, the company was equally ecstatic, not to mention deeply impressed with their colonists. They even wrote off all outstanding fines for drinking and cursing, and they gave Rishworth and Halhead 100 weight of tobacco each as thanks for rallying the island’s servants and slaves. And then, they applied for the right to privateer. This could change everything.
Through their nominal governor, the Earl of Holland, they petitioned for redress, explaining to the Privy Council that Providence Island had strategic value for the English, and that the Spanish had actually made multiple attacks on Providence Island, especially if you included the assault on the Seaflower off the Florida Coast. This was Holland’s job. He had court connections and a good relationship with the king. He didn’t put any work into the colony, didn’t pay anything, but he’d get a share in any profits and prizes in case they needed him to get the king’s support. So, through Holland, they told the king about the extraordinarily strategic location, and the fact that it was strong, fortified and had a strong military presence, with trained and armed civilians, though not as many people as they needed. Then, they explained that they hadn’t been able to profit from the venture, which cost thousands a year. They explained that the colonists had threatened to desert, and that the Dutch were interested in buying the plantation if they couldn’t afford to keep it, this uniquely, individually, amazingly strategic island … going.
Their petition actually came at a convenient time. In 1635, France had entered the Thirty Years War, siding against Spain. This was a good opportunity for the English to forge an alliance with one or another, and both Henrietta Maria and the Earl of Holland, nominal governor of the Providence Island Company, were pushing the king to ally with France, and English privateering in the West Indies would make that alliance more attractive to the otherwise-stronger France. The king had once hoped for an alliance with Spain, but that had never actually materialized. The king referred the issue to his Secretary of State, John Coke, who also preferred to ally with France than Spain, and who wrote a report reiterating the company’s arguments and recommending he grant the petition. So, he did.
And, with their petition, they sparked the king’s interest. He sent them a message telling them that, with the letters of mark, he fully expected the company to keep the colony going, or sell it to other Englishmen who wouldn’t let it fail. A Dutch company offered 70,000 for the island, hoping to use it as a privateering base, but the king urged them to refuse, and the investors were also inclined to reject at this point, or at least, some of the investors were. The company was even deeper in debt by now, 4,600 pounds in be precise, with interest and continuing expenses bringing the real cost of continuing the venture to nearly 10,000 pounds. Privateering was an encouraging development, but that was a lot of money back then, and it still was that same, very limited group of people trying to fund everything. So, privateering or not, there were some serious discussions to be held. Some members were burned out. They’d seen so many things that were supposedly going to save the colony or fund the colony, that the promises rang empty at this point. They didn’t want to invest any more, no matter what. Lord Brooke offered to take the colony’s entire financial burden upon himself, on the condition that he set the colony’s path going forward. Pym pushed the other investors to reject Brooke’s offer, and put in more money, or bring in new investors. He pinned his argument on hopes that the king might give them the majority of the 10,000 pounds, but that was a bit of a stretch considering that they were the very people who had fought the hardest against the king on the subject of his own finances, bringing him to the verge of bankruptcy. They couldn’t agree on exactly what to do, so they postponed a decision.
They did, however, start preparing their privateering plans, and they replaced Governor Bell with Robert Hunt, though they kept Bell on the council and instructed Hunt to show him respect. Hunt was one of Brooke’s proteges, and a veteran of La Rochelle, and recruited a handful of substantial men, Frederick Johnson, Matthew Downes and John Francis, to accompany him to Providence Island, where they were also added to the council. The civilians of the island weren’t thrilled with the turn to privateering, though, and began to withdraw into their own private group, avoiding interaction with the military men at all. And, Bell reneged on his promise to free the slaves.
And of course, the Spanish were still out there. Three months after the initial attack, the infuriated governor of Cartagena ordered the commander of the first attack to attack Providence Island again. But he didn’t. He took a couple ships, sailed around the area for a month, then returned to Cartagena and said the English had left. They had every right to push the English out of the Indies, but Providence Island really was going to be hard to attack.
There’s not all that much to discuss this episode, I suppose, because frankly it went pretty well for everyone. But, there is kind of a fun thought related to it. Thing is, there are a lot of what ifs in early American history, but a common theme among along of them is what if the Elizabethans had been more successful? What if Roanoke had survived past the initial hardships? What if Prince Henry had survived to become king? Elizabethan exploration was the romantic side of colonization, and to a great extent it is today. But, it was the Stuart pragmatists who ended up enduring. Well, Providence Island gives us an additional chance to explore what might have happened with Elizabethan colonies. It shared all major characteristics with Elizabethan exploration and settlement, and in fact, it so fit in with the Elizabethan model that even a century after Providence Island fell, its name was listed alongside Raleigh, Drake and the Elizabethans in anti-Spanish and pro-Colonial rhetoric. It was only after the Spanish empire had decayed and the threat it posed had faded that memory of the Providence Island colony started to fade, too. But, at the same time, it enjoyed the advantages that the Stuart colonies enjoyed, like existing under peace-seeking monarchs and having some experience and prior knowledge of what colonization entailed. This lets us ponder some of the Elizabethan-specific dynamics of interweaving intense military presence and privateering with civilian life and growth – things which all North American colonies, Stuart colonies, bluntly rejected. Even the insistence on keeping control firmly within London and within a small group of people hearkened back to the Elizabethan model.
And we obviously know it failed. Stuart colonies struggled, but Providence Island joined its predecessors in total collapse. Spanish threat aside, military and civilian populations found themselves increasingly at odds with each other. And, this kind of seems like an inevitability. The interests of the two groups were completely antithetical to each other, one seeking danger, and the other bearing a large portion of the risk for the other’s danger-seeking. It has been a recurring theme through the history of this time that soldiers and especially sailors came from a rougher environment with less regard for civilian populations, and that can only, inevitably have increased tension in any colony which embraced the Elizabethan dual-role. It’s quite possible that Elizabethan colonial failures weren’t simply the result of poor circumstances and inexperience, but that Elizabethan ventures simply weren’t viable, even if they were romanticized. Even if Roanoke had survived in the short term, there’s a very real possibility that it would have devolved into this type of a situation.
And, this brings us to the first of three reasons that Providence Island researcher Karen Ordahl Kupperman cited as causing Providence Island to fail while the Chesapeake and New England succeeded. She devoted a large portion of her book to isolating what Providence Island did differently from successful American colonies, and she came up with three things. The first is the island’s military presence, and specifically, a military presence which was not controlled by the civilian population. All of New England and the Chesapeake placed civilian government above military order after just a few years, but not Providence Island. As for the other two, we’ll get to them next week.