This article mines archival sources and published accounts from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to highlight the extent to which enslaved men, women, and children in the South Sea came into contact with British corsairs. It does so in ways that lend to three important observations: that people of African descent occupied a central role within the history of British corsair activity in the South Sea; that British corsair activity in the South Sea forms part of the history of the slave trade; and that there are important differences between British corsairs’ use of enslaved and free people of African descent in the South Sea as compared to the Atlantic World. The latter point, which rests on the recognition of the particular linguistic skills and geographic knowledge held by people of African descent in the South Sea and British corsairs' particular vulnerabilities, also provides a useful framework for future research on both the specificity of black life in the region and the meanings those skills and knowledge held for Africans and their descendants themselves.

本文挖掘了 17 世纪晚期和 18 世纪早期的档案资料和发表的记录，以突出南海受奴役的男人、女人和儿童与英国海盗的接触程度。它以三个重要观察结果的方式这样做：非洲人后裔在英国海盗在南海活动的历史中占据了核心地位；英国海盗在南海的活动构成了奴隶贸易历史的一部分；并且与大西洋世界相比，英国海盗在南海使用被奴役的和自由的非洲人后裔之间存在重要差异。最后一点，