The Guale, the Huguenot, the Metis, the Warrior, and the Pirate
Maria is a Guale Indian living on a Georgian Sea Island at a Spanish mission in the late 17th century. Her mission is attacked by Indian slave raiders. She is taken to Charles Town and put on an English merchant ship bound for the Caribbean. She is brutally raped on board until French pirates capture the merchantman. Taken on board the pirate ship, she is treated well and cared for by the ship’s surgeon but given the option of signing on as the “ship’s wife” or being sold into slavery. She agrees to sign papers but escapes to Martinique while the ship is in port.
A mulatto family takes her to a French tobacco plantation, where she is sold and becomes the family’s servant. After a difficult time, she adjusts to her situation, is treated well, and becomes part of the family and friend to her mistress. She and a Huguenot indentured servant become lovers, and her life becomes sweeter until his time as a servant is completed, and he leaves to join Protestants in the North American colonies.
She soon learns she is pregnant and has Elise, her metis daughter. She becomes a very protective mother, not wanting Elise to experience the pain of her own early life. When one of her master’s daughters marries an alcoholic wife-beater, who takes an interest in Elise, Maria has her leave with one of the master’s sons for St. Vincent Island, where he plans to establish his own plantation among the Caribs.
The story then focuses on Elise, her blooming relationship with a Black Carib warrior, Nuno, and the failed French invasion of Black Carib territory that threatens to change their lives for all time.
The final part of the book focuses on Kobby, a Fante fisherman from the Gold Coast, who signs on as a part-time sailor with a French slave ship to earn money for a bride price. The ship’s captain does not let him off at his home port and forces him to cross the Atlantic on a miserable voyage, fraught with sickness and short on supplies. The ship is captured by Black Beard’s pirates, and Kobby is offered a chance to join the pirate crew, which he does. He becomes friends with Cuffy, who is half Fante, half Carib, and is Black Beard’s translator. Kobby experiences sea battles, saves Black Beard’s life, and in turn, is saved by Black Beard. Wounded, he is taken to Cuffy’s village to recuperate. He marries Cuffy’s sister and joins the defense of Carib territory when the French invade, linking him in a strange way to Elise’s story.