New England Pirate Hero discovered
By April Folos
01 April, 2020
Make a Day Of It New England
01 April, 2020
Make a Day Of It New England
You’ve probably never heard of the New England Pirate who rampaged the waters from Nova Scotia to the western Caribbean, attacking treasure ships and ‘Slavers’, freeing their cargo and burying the treasure he collected along the way at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy, have you?
Recently discovered documents show this Pirate was more feared by his chosen enemy, than any at the time! Stories newly discovered say that the mere whisper of his name and the ship he commanded would strike fear into the hearts of those early Colonial sea captains who enslaved humanity for profit. Based on the stories, many of them did not see another day when overtaken by The Sword of Damocles, captained by the Dread Pirate Spartacus Steele.
Who was this fierce avenger of the seas ? How did he come to be and what drove him on? These recently discovered documents hint at a fantastically successful pirate who buried vast amounts of treasure along thousands of miles of coastline around the waters he plundered - much of it apparently yet undiscovered. Want to learn more? Read on to see what researchers are learning!
Born the son of an Irish clan chief, enslaved by Barbary Pirates, sold as an indentured servant in New England:
Here’s what we know of Spartacus Steele so far, gleaned from diaries and first hand accounts of people who knew him, recently found in a false wall during renovations on a home at an undisclosed location near the Salem Maritime National Historic Site . It is yet to be discovered why these documents were hidden and this information has never come to light. Here is the story that has emerged:
Kyle O’Callaghan was born in 1679, the son of a clan chief in County Cork. When he was 9 years old, his family was murdered and he was captured by Barbary Pirates. Defiant from the start, Kyle received regular beatings from his captors, including one that almost killed him when he helped an African slave escape over the side of their ship off the west coast of Africa. But, no matter how brutally they beat him, he always recovered with what seemed a greater resolve to oppose his masters. The pirates began to respect the relentless will of this young lad to resist his oppressors, remarking that his backbone must be made of Damascus Steel or that he had the hopeless courage of the Roman slave Spartacus in his blood. Thus was spawned a new name given to the Irish slave by his Moor captors. Spartacus Steele.
Held captive for a year aboard ship while they sailed the coast of Spain and West Africa, Spartacus was finally sold in the Moroccan slave market to serve as a cabin boy for a small galleon of the Spanish Treasure fleet. Setting out on their return trip from Veracruz Mexico in 1689, fully loaded with silver and gold, his ship was taken by the Pirate William May. Spartacus and most of the crew were spared, but in exchange for their lives, they were compelled to swear an oath to May. The flotilla then sailed to New York where May received a privateer commission from the governor to harass the French during King Wiliam’s war.
Young Spartacus witnessed many brutal acts raiding French interests in Acadia. He learned to despise the Privateer May and planned to run at the first chance he got. However, on their return trip from Acadia to New York in late 1690, Captain May surprised Spartacus by selling him as an indentured servant to a hard nosed New England farmer with an eye for business, Darious Sloane, when they stopped off in Boston for supplies.
Finds a life in New England under his new master, but seeds are sown to make him his mortal enemy
Life was tolerable for Spartacus under Darious Sloane. A 35 year old farmer from Salem Massachusetts, Sloane was a no-nonsense son of a Puritan minister who was experiencing success raising corn and had a taste for prosperity. Hard, but fair, he justified that purchasing Spartacus for 10 years servitude was saving the boy from a horrible fate as a pirate. He also expected to exact every pence of work he had paid Captain May out of the boy before he was granted his freedom. Spartacus worked tirelessly for Sloane, alongside his master’s own son Jeremiah - 4 years older than he.
Already a prosperous farmer and savvy businessman, Darious turned his eye toward maritime trade, where he believed a true fortune could be amassed. In 1694 he commissioned a ship, The Salem, to be built in Essex, MA and hired Captain Joseph Wheeler to transport merchant cargo between the colonies and England. At 15, with 6 years left on his indenture and almost 3 years of experience at sea, Spartacus joined wheeler on The Salem as an able seamen.
Spartacus learned a great deal about seamanship from Wheeler who had distinguished himself in the English navy during the Anglo-Dutch wars. He also gained a friend, Kobe Kildwalla, an African slave two years older than Spartacus who had been signed on to The Salem by his master, one of Sloane’s largest investors. From 1694 to 1698 Spartacus and Kobe worked and learned under Wheeler, a man who despised slavery of any kind as an abomination and served as stern but kind steward for the young men he came to think of as his own sons. During this time, they made a dozen trans-Atlantic crossings, many harrowing in the tempestuous North Atlantic. They learned a great deal.
Darious Sloane became wealthy on the profits of The Salem, but he yearned for more. He knew that many were becoming rich shipping cotton and tobacco from South Carolina to England, then manufactured goods and rum to Africa and returning to America with slaves sold to them by African Chieftains - and he wanted in. When The Salem returned in the fall of 1698, Sloane advised Wheeler of his plans to ‘run the triangle’. Wheeler, along with almost all of the crew, would have none of it, and that was fine with Sloane who’s son Jeremiah had become a ships captain in his own right trading with other colonies. Sloane figured it was time for Jeremiah to get into the family business, keeping more of the profits for the family. Wheeler fought to purchase Kobe and pay off Spartacus’ contract - but Sloane needed their experience on the coming voyage and they were cheap - so he refused.
Mutineer and Pirate
After The Salem had been re-fitted for the slave trade, Spartacus sailed in the spring of 1699, as the first mate under Captain Jeremiah Sloane on what would be his last voyage for the Sloane family. The newly acquired crew was made up of the kinds of hardened desperate sailors who would work a slaver, with only a few who had made this kind of run before.
From diaries found, it appears clear Spartacus knew they were headed for troubled waters shortly after The Salem departed Charleston, South Carolina for England with a load of cotton and tobacco. Jeremiah Stone lacked experience as the Captain of a transatlantic ship. He may have been able to overcome his shortcomings with his old crew of New England hands, but not so with the hardened lot he now sailed with. The crew soon viewed him with derision. As first mate, Spartacus tried to counsel Captain Sloane as diplomatically as he could but this only served to enrage Sloane, jealous of the value his father placed on Spartacus, and he strove to prove to the crew that he was in fact their master.
Things went from bad to hellish when they arrived off the west coast of Africa. Spartacus thought he knew enough of the slave trade through personal experience. Kobe, having been born a slave in the colonies had only heard stories. No one but the few veterans on board The Salem were prepared to take on the slaves purchased from the Portuguese slave factory - including Captain Sloane.
Details are few, but what is known is that a week out on the return to America, Spartacus Steele realized he had no stomach for this trade and he became angry with the whole affair. Somehow, slaves were freed and a short battle ensued on deck - ending with the deaths of half the crew…Joshua Sloane among them.
Steele had gained the trust of the crew since departing Charleston, and those remaining alive voted him captain. What drove him to make his next fateful decisions is unknown. What is known is that he returned to Africa to release those that wanted to return to their homeland. Those that didn’t remained free men and sailed with Spartacus, who turned The Salem to a location he knew as a boy - the Caribbean trade routes of the Spanish treasure fleet and European slave traders.
Pirate fame, treasure and mystery
From the historical documents we now have reviewed on the Pirate Spartacus Steele, it is likely he did not have a deep hatred of the Spanish, having been treated humanely enough, though a slave, as a 10 year old cabin boy serving on the Spanish galleon. But he did know that the silver and gold that was bleeding out of Veracruz was hacked from the ground by the indigenous peoples forced to work under horrendous conditions that amounted to slavery. That was enough for him to target the treasure galleons that plied the waters of the Caribbean. He took pains to spare the Spanish crew of the ships he plundered when he could. He also targeted slavers with a vengeance. From reports of the time, those crews - especially the Captains - did not fare as well.
In late 1700, Spartacus and his crew captured the fast and sturdy slave ship Henrietta Marie off the southern tip of Florida, renaming her The Sword Of Damocles after a story that Captain Wheeler was fond of telling his young sailors. He hanged the captain, disembarked the crew in Tortuga that did not want to join him, and then decided to return the captured slaves back to Africa. Stories reveal he was rewarded for this deed by an unknown African benefactor, and through the recently discovered documents, it appears that he established some kind of arrangement that is now the subject of intense historic scrutiny.
What we do know so far is that the Pirate Spartacus Steele with Kobe Kildwalla and his free crew, continued to attack treasure and slave ships for the next twenty years - amassing a phenomenal fortune, the magnitude of which is just recently beginning to come to light. Research suggests that Spartacus and his crew buried troves of treasures at hundreds of coastal locations from Nova Scotia to Florida, and from what researchers can see - very little of it has ever been found.
There is much yet to learn about the Pirate Spartacus Steele, but at this point, it appears very clear that a New England ‘Pirate Hero’ patrolled the seas at the very beginning of the 18th century, exacting his own justice on those who would prey on others for profit. We’ll update you on new information as it is discovered!
Recently discovered documents show this Pirate was more feared by his chosen enemy, than any at the time! Stories newly discovered say that the mere whisper of his name and the ship he commanded would strike fear into the hearts of those early Colonial sea captains who enslaved humanity for profit. Based on the stories, many of them did not see another day when overtaken by The Sword of Damocles, captained by the Dread Pirate Spartacus Steele.
Who was this fierce avenger of the seas ? How did he come to be and what drove him on? These recently discovered documents hint at a fantastically successful pirate who buried vast amounts of treasure along thousands of miles of coastline around the waters he plundered - much of it apparently yet undiscovered. Want to learn more? Read on to see what researchers are learning!
Born the son of an Irish clan chief, enslaved by Barbary Pirates, sold as an indentured servant in New England:
Here’s what we know of Spartacus Steele so far, gleaned from diaries and first hand accounts of people who knew him, recently found in a false wall during renovations on a home at an undisclosed location near the Salem Maritime National Historic Site . It is yet to be discovered why these documents were hidden and this information has never come to light. Here is the story that has emerged:
Kyle O’Callaghan was born in 1679, the son of a clan chief in County Cork. When he was 9 years old, his family was murdered and he was captured by Barbary Pirates. Defiant from the start, Kyle received regular beatings from his captors, including one that almost killed him when he helped an African slave escape over the side of their ship off the west coast of Africa. But, no matter how brutally they beat him, he always recovered with what seemed a greater resolve to oppose his masters. The pirates began to respect the relentless will of this young lad to resist his oppressors, remarking that his backbone must be made of Damascus Steel or that he had the hopeless courage of the Roman slave Spartacus in his blood. Thus was spawned a new name given to the Irish slave by his Moor captors. Spartacus Steele.
Held captive for a year aboard ship while they sailed the coast of Spain and West Africa, Spartacus was finally sold in the Moroccan slave market to serve as a cabin boy for a small galleon of the Spanish Treasure fleet. Setting out on their return trip from Veracruz Mexico in 1689, fully loaded with silver and gold, his ship was taken by the Pirate William May. Spartacus and most of the crew were spared, but in exchange for their lives, they were compelled to swear an oath to May. The flotilla then sailed to New York where May received a privateer commission from the governor to harass the French during King Wiliam’s war.
Young Spartacus witnessed many brutal acts raiding French interests in Acadia. He learned to despise the Privateer May and planned to run at the first chance he got. However, on their return trip from Acadia to New York in late 1690, Captain May surprised Spartacus by selling him as an indentured servant to a hard nosed New England farmer with an eye for business, Darious Sloane, when they stopped off in Boston for supplies.
Finds a life in New England under his new master, but seeds are sown to make him his mortal enemy
Life was tolerable for Spartacus under Darious Sloane. A 35 year old farmer from Salem Massachusetts, Sloane was a no-nonsense son of a Puritan minister who was experiencing success raising corn and had a taste for prosperity. Hard, but fair, he justified that purchasing Spartacus for 10 years servitude was saving the boy from a horrible fate as a pirate. He also expected to exact every pence of work he had paid Captain May out of the boy before he was granted his freedom. Spartacus worked tirelessly for Sloane, alongside his master’s own son Jeremiah - 4 years older than he.
Already a prosperous farmer and savvy businessman, Darious turned his eye toward maritime trade, where he believed a true fortune could be amassed. In 1694 he commissioned a ship, The Salem, to be built in Essex, MA and hired Captain Joseph Wheeler to transport merchant cargo between the colonies and England. At 15, with 6 years left on his indenture and almost 3 years of experience at sea, Spartacus joined wheeler on The Salem as an able seamen.
Spartacus learned a great deal about seamanship from Wheeler who had distinguished himself in the English navy during the Anglo-Dutch wars. He also gained a friend, Kobe Kildwalla, an African slave two years older than Spartacus who had been signed on to The Salem by his master, one of Sloane’s largest investors. From 1694 to 1698 Spartacus and Kobe worked and learned under Wheeler, a man who despised slavery of any kind as an abomination and served as stern but kind steward for the young men he came to think of as his own sons. During this time, they made a dozen trans-Atlantic crossings, many harrowing in the tempestuous North Atlantic. They learned a great deal.
Darious Sloane became wealthy on the profits of The Salem, but he yearned for more. He knew that many were becoming rich shipping cotton and tobacco from South Carolina to England, then manufactured goods and rum to Africa and returning to America with slaves sold to them by African Chieftains - and he wanted in. When The Salem returned in the fall of 1698, Sloane advised Wheeler of his plans to ‘run the triangle’. Wheeler, along with almost all of the crew, would have none of it, and that was fine with Sloane who’s son Jeremiah had become a ships captain in his own right trading with other colonies. Sloane figured it was time for Jeremiah to get into the family business, keeping more of the profits for the family. Wheeler fought to purchase Kobe and pay off Spartacus’ contract - but Sloane needed their experience on the coming voyage and they were cheap - so he refused.
Mutineer and Pirate
After The Salem had been re-fitted for the slave trade, Spartacus sailed in the spring of 1699, as the first mate under Captain Jeremiah Sloane on what would be his last voyage for the Sloane family. The newly acquired crew was made up of the kinds of hardened desperate sailors who would work a slaver, with only a few who had made this kind of run before.
From diaries found, it appears clear Spartacus knew they were headed for troubled waters shortly after The Salem departed Charleston, South Carolina for England with a load of cotton and tobacco. Jeremiah Stone lacked experience as the Captain of a transatlantic ship. He may have been able to overcome his shortcomings with his old crew of New England hands, but not so with the hardened lot he now sailed with. The crew soon viewed him with derision. As first mate, Spartacus tried to counsel Captain Sloane as diplomatically as he could but this only served to enrage Sloane, jealous of the value his father placed on Spartacus, and he strove to prove to the crew that he was in fact their master.
Things went from bad to hellish when they arrived off the west coast of Africa. Spartacus thought he knew enough of the slave trade through personal experience. Kobe, having been born a slave in the colonies had only heard stories. No one but the few veterans on board The Salem were prepared to take on the slaves purchased from the Portuguese slave factory - including Captain Sloane.
Details are few, but what is known is that a week out on the return to America, Spartacus Steele realized he had no stomach for this trade and he became angry with the whole affair. Somehow, slaves were freed and a short battle ensued on deck - ending with the deaths of half the crew…Joshua Sloane among them.
Steele had gained the trust of the crew since departing Charleston, and those remaining alive voted him captain. What drove him to make his next fateful decisions is unknown. What is known is that he returned to Africa to release those that wanted to return to their homeland. Those that didn’t remained free men and sailed with Spartacus, who turned The Salem to a location he knew as a boy - the Caribbean trade routes of the Spanish treasure fleet and European slave traders.
Pirate fame, treasure and mystery
From the historical documents we now have reviewed on the Pirate Spartacus Steele, it is likely he did not have a deep hatred of the Spanish, having been treated humanely enough, though a slave, as a 10 year old cabin boy serving on the Spanish galleon. But he did know that the silver and gold that was bleeding out of Veracruz was hacked from the ground by the indigenous peoples forced to work under horrendous conditions that amounted to slavery. That was enough for him to target the treasure galleons that plied the waters of the Caribbean. He took pains to spare the Spanish crew of the ships he plundered when he could. He also targeted slavers with a vengeance. From reports of the time, those crews - especially the Captains - did not fare as well.
In late 1700, Spartacus and his crew captured the fast and sturdy slave ship Henrietta Marie off the southern tip of Florida, renaming her The Sword Of Damocles after a story that Captain Wheeler was fond of telling his young sailors. He hanged the captain, disembarked the crew in Tortuga that did not want to join him, and then decided to return the captured slaves back to Africa. Stories reveal he was rewarded for this deed by an unknown African benefactor, and through the recently discovered documents, it appears that he established some kind of arrangement that is now the subject of intense historic scrutiny.
What we do know so far is that the Pirate Spartacus Steele with Kobe Kildwalla and his free crew, continued to attack treasure and slave ships for the next twenty years - amassing a phenomenal fortune, the magnitude of which is just recently beginning to come to light. Research suggests that Spartacus and his crew buried troves of treasures at hundreds of coastal locations from Nova Scotia to Florida, and from what researchers can see - very little of it has ever been found.
There is much yet to learn about the Pirate Spartacus Steele, but at this point, it appears very clear that a New England ‘Pirate Hero’ patrolled the seas at the very beginning of the 18th century, exacting his own justice on those who would prey on others for profit. We’ll update you on new information as it is discovered!
