Sir Henry Morgan
The Welsh privateer Sir Henry Morgan (c. 1635 - 1688) might be more famous as a pirate but his links to Black History come through his time as the Lieutanant-Governor of Jamaica.
Morgan (right, in a contemporary woodcut) was probably born in Llanrumney, Monmouthshire. Little is known of him before his rise to prominence during the Anglo-Spanish War in the 1660s, but it is known that he was a friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, Governor of Jamaica and the man who gave Morgan a Letter of Marque, an official government licence to attack Spanish ships and possessions.
Modyford, who had come to the West Indies as a young man in 1647, originally to Barbados. He brought seven hundred planters and their slaves to Jamaica in 1664, becoming the man who expanded greatly the slave-dependant plantation economy of the island.
Morgan's career as a privateer in the Caribbean was a great success, bringing him wealth, through prize money, as well as notoriety. He conducted raids on the Spanish in modern day Cuba, Panama and Venezuela, culminating in his 1671 raid on Panama City.
Despite being arrested after the signing of the Peace with Spain, probably at the behest of the Spanish, and taken back to Britain, Morgan was never charged and returned to Jamaica in 1674, not only a free man, but a Knight. It was then he entered Jamaican politics, while still keeping in with the local privateers.
John Seller's Map of Jamaica shows the Parishes of the island. The map is dated from the early 1670s, the time of Morgan's return to the island. (The Huntingdon Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California)
Sir Henry Morgan would eventually own three plantations, in the Parishes of St George and St Mary.
He would lead three campaigns on the island against the Maroons - the descendants of escaped slaves who lived in free communities in the remoter reaches of Jamaica. The Maroons were pushed into the mountains, retreating from Morgan and his forces.
His plantations prospered, despite the difficulties with local politics and walking the tightrope of respectability and unofficial privateering as well as his large alcohol intake.
In his will it is stated that he owned 131 slaves: 64 male, 67 female. Of these 33 are listed as being boys, girls or children. They are valued at £1923.00 - the equivalent today to nearly a quarter of a million pounds.
Maybe the Island of Jamaica had the last laugh. Four years after his death an earthquake struck, causing two-thirds of Port Royal, near modern Kingston, to fall into the sea - including Morgan's grave.
