Fully twenty-five percent of mariners and other members of seagoing trades were African Americans--some free, some enslaved. Their skill sets ranged from new hands taken on board for a voyage all the way to captain and owner of a seagoing vessel. There were many pilots—free and enslaved—working the sounds of the Carolinas, and the fluctuating local laws about where they could and could not sail, drove transiting captains to desparation.

The Treaty of Paris in 1815 declared the issuance of letters of marque and the practice of arming merchantmen to take commerce of belligerents at sea by force illegal. However, the devil is always in the details.

Indentured servants worked for the owner of their contract, which had a term limit. Once the term was up, the worker could continue with their life. An enslaved person was treated like property to be bought, sold, traded, or destroyed at the will of the owner. My antecedent, John Perkins, arrived in Boston in 1630 as an indentured servant, served his time, and then moved to Ipswich.