Pyrate Caesar, from the 1600’s is made up. The letter he writes to Gaspar De Vargas, about a secret treasure wreck hidden amongst the 1622 fleet is fiction for Treasure off the Coast.

However,

The the 1622 Spanish Treasure Fleet, the Tierre Firme fleet, was real. Sailing to Spain with hulls laden with treasure, 28 ships launched from Havana, Cuba, in 1622. They were swept up in a Hurricane as they rounded the Florida Keys. Some were blown as far west as the Dry Tortugas. Seven wrecked, shattered an sunken throughout the Florida Keys.

Ships like the Santa Margarita and the Nuestra Senora de Atocha had their treasure were scattered across the seafloor. Gaspar de Vargas was real. He was the man put in charge of Spanish efforts to salvage these wrecks.

Much of the treasure on the Atocha was un-recoverable, as it was too deep and to heavy for salvagers from the time, some of it would only be re-discovered in the 1970’s. I added a fictional boat: Nuestra Senora de Magdalene to the fleet, but the stories of treasure are real! The Senora de Rosario was a real ship blown out to the Dry Tortugas. It was originally salvaged from Loggerhead Key by Gaspar de Vargas, and a real team of underwater archeologists discovered its probable remains in the 1990s. Meanwhile, the discovery and the recovery of the Atocha and other wrecks from the 1622 fleet by Mel Fisher and his organization is well documented here.

Legends of Black Caesar abound.

Of the 3 pirates named Caesar I’ve written about, Black Caesar is, by far, the most prominent . Narratives of his legend can be found across internet, and in multiple books about pirates.

Many carry some version of the narrative above. A man who was captured in Africa, befriend a sailor, and escaped a shipwreck. The two then turned to piracy preying upon ships in the Florida Straits. Before falling out. After that, Black Caesar grew his pirate operations, amassed a fortune and legend, and then teamed up with Blackbeard, where he met met his fate after the Adventure was captured.

Most of these tales list his home base as Elliot Key, or Caesar’s Rock, although some place him further north or west. Most tell stories of the captives he left marooned on an island with no water and little food. Many suggest that he left behind treasure.

However, there is scant record of this man from this time. (Early 1700’s.) Better, smarter, more qualified researchers than I have looked into this legend, and found it wanting. Ghost of the Gallows. by Devin Leigh wrote a good paper, doing a lot of research into the legend of Black Caesar (and his reality) that I am linking it here and below.

His Basic conclusion: The modern legend about Pirate Black Caesar, and the historical record don’t match up.

The long and the short of it is that The earliest ‘academic’ record of Black Caesar, comes from 1724 edition of a book called A General History of Pyrates, a book written by ‘Charles Johnson’ a pen name for an unknown author. Historians through the years have debated the accuracy of the book.

The only reference to a man named Caesar amongst Blackbeard’s Crew is the name Caesar found among a list of men recorded as being wounded, but not killed during the battle Blackbeard’s final battle.

Interestingly the fate of this Caesar is murky, as the book states only 2 of the men at the engagement were spared hanging. But Caesar’s name appears amongst those two men. Israel Hands (pardoned) and Samuel Odel (acquitted) leaving open the slim possibility (in an inaccurate account anyway) that Caesar was not executed.

However, there is no note that the mentioned Caesar was Black, and no mention of a massive pirate legacy of his own. (although the singular name might be a clue to his origin as a slave.) The story about a Black man attempting to destroy the adventure does not name Caesar as the man in question, although it may have been him.

Also, and perhaps more relevant to this man’s name, a few months before Blackbeard was captured, he and his crew had pirated a ship known as the Protestant Caesar.

Unfortunately, most of the records of the trials of Blackbeard’s surviving crew were lost to time, a move to a new courthouse in the 1780s, and a fire during the Civil War.

But Black Caesar’s Legend only grew. The stories of an African Chief enslaved and brought to America, to prowl near the mangrove islands of southern Florida grew and established themselves. spread.

There are some historians who suggest that the Caesar from Blackbeard’s Crew, and the Black Caesar who left his name amongst the waters of Biscayne Bay, are two entirely different people. (There is evidence to suggest that the Caesar in Blackbeard’s crew might have been enslaved, and belonged to Thomas Knight another figure implicated in Blackbeard’s piracy.)

Archeologists affiliated with Biscayne National Park have tried to find the origin of the Black Caesar stories affiliated with the area, but have come up empty.

The only slave ship to fit the story of Black Caesar wrecked in Biscayne Bay in 1827, More than 100 years after the reported death of Black Caesar, and even after the later Caesar (Henri Caesar) was reported to have died.

Which leads to the conclusion that: we don’t know.

More than likely the Legend of Black Caesar who haunted the Florida Keys in the 1700s has grown from a kernel of truth. Perhaps from the simple mention a Caesar amongst Blackbeard’s Crew inspired a legend which has grown over the years. Perhaps another pirate in Southern Florida Spurred the Legend, and the two stories have merged over the centuries.

There is a chart from 1763 which shows Black Caesar’s Creek. And an anecdote about "Caesar’s Key” (not Caesar’s Rock) being used as a pirate shipyard from a U.S. reconnaissance mission in 1854. (which could be attributed to either Black or Henri Caesar) Caesar’s Creek still carries the name, as does Caesar’s Rock.

And the legends persist.

But as to where the truth ends and the legend begins, much more research can be done.

For the purpose of the books, and this article, I refer to the pirate from the 1800’s as Henri Caesar, although in stories about the man’s pirate career, it is said that he also used the title Black Caesar.

But, Is there any truth to this Haitian Freedom fighter turned pirate?

Probably not.

Records of the name Caesar in Biscayne Bay, predate Henri Caesar, who only appeared (in stories) as late as the early 1800’s.

A Black Caesar who existed in the early 1800’s (not then called Henri) appears alongside another pirate named Jose Gaspar in stories like this. However, Gaspar himself is a legendary pirate of very dubious origin. (read: He did not exist.) And stories about him were likely invented around the turn of the 20th century, and the first written record of Gaspar and this Caesar, (then of Sanibel Island was in this hotel brochure. from 1900. (Which is about the time stories about Henri Caesar begin to expand.)

As for the aspects of the story involving Henri Caesar’s days as a Hattian Freedom Fighter, these seem to have merged with the apocryphal tales of the 1820’s Black Caesar.

Lancelot Jones, who lived in Biscayne since his birth in the 1890s until Hurricane Andrew in 1997, is remembered to have said in this article that the story about a ring on Caesar’s Rock used to hide Caesar’s boat was an invention of a reporter from the 1920s.

Most of the information about a Freedom fighter in the Haitian Revolution turned pirate seems to come from a book written in 1980 called Black Caesar, Pirate Written by Cliff Gardner, who claimed both to have seen Henri Caesar’s Grave in Key West, but also claimed the gravestone was stolen after the publication of his book. And much of what was written about piracy seems to borrow from the older Pirate Caesars legend.

As to where the rumor of a treasure worth $6 million dollars came from. (often mentioned alongside stories of Henri Caesar) That number his hard to trace. It might have come from stories about Gaspar, or other pirate rumors.

Efforts to find any historical records of such a freedom fighter turned pirate have come up empty.

In fact, the story about Henri Caesar’s defeat at the hands of the US Anti-pirate fleet contradict the factual history of that fleet, and there is no record of his execution in Key West. (Although this is just one of Henri Caesar’s legendary ends.)

As for a Henri Caesar, freedom fighter, it is not impossible that Haitian pirates sailed the waters of Biscayne Bay. It’s even possible that one may have taken the name of the already legendary Black Caesar to intimidate his prey.

But there are no official records of the man easily available.