Jump to content

John Caesar: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
mNo edit summary
No edit summary
 
(309 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Australian bushranger (c. 1763 – 1796)}}
'''John Caesar''' ([[1764]] – [[February 15]], [[1796]]), nicknamed "Black Caesar", was the first [[Australia|Australian]] [[bushranger]] and one of the first [[Blacks|black people]] to arrive during British colonization of the continent as a [[penal colony]].
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = John Caesar
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{circa|1763}}
| birth_place = [[Madagascar]]
| residence =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1796|2|15|1763}}
| death_place = [[Strathfield, New South Wales|Strathfield]], [[Colony of New South Wales]], Australia
| cause = Gunshot wound
| resting_place =
| alias = Black Caesar
| charge =
| conviction = Theft (1786)<br>Theft (1789)
| conviction_penalty = Transportation – 7 years<br>Transportation – life
| occupation = Servant
| children = Mary Anne Fisher Power
}}


'''John Caesar''' ({{Circa|1763}} – 15 February 1796), nicknamed "'''Black Caesar'''",<ref name=":5" /> was an 18th-century convict and one of the first [[black people|people of African descent]] to arrive in Australia. He is considered to be the first Australian [[bushranger]].<ref name=":44">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172830137 |title=To-day's True Short Story |newspaper=[[The Manning River Times and Advocate for the Northern Coast Districts of New South Wales]] |volume=82 |date=13 May 1950 |access-date=5 July 2017 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref name=":0" />{{Sfn|Chingaipe|2024|p=182}}<ref>The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (29 October 2020). [https://web.archive.org/web/20240709175627/https://www.britannica.com/topic/bushranger "bushranger"]. ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopedia Britannica]]''. Archived from [https://www.britannica.com/topic/bushranger the original] on 21 December 2024.</ref><ref name=":1" />{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}}
Caesar was a [[slave]] on a sugar plantation in his early life, most likely born in the [[West Indies]] around [[1764]]. At some point he was able to run away and reach [[London]].


On [[March 17]], [[1786]], he was tried at Deptford, Kent for stealing 240 shillings. His sentence was transportation to Australia for seven years. He left on the [[Alexander (ship)|Alexander]], a convict transport ship in the [[First Fleet]], in May 1787 and arrived in [[Botany Bay]] in January [[1788]].
Born in [[Madagascar]], he was [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved in the United States]] in the late 1770s. Caesar later moved to south [[England]] where he was tried in 1786 for stealing £12. His sentence was transportation to [[Colony of New South Wales|New South Wales]] for seven years. In January 1788 he arrived in [[Botany Bay]] on the [[First Fleet]] convict ship ''{{ship||Alexander|1783 ship|2}}''. 15 months later Caesar was tried for theft and sentenced to transportation for life. He escaped into the bush but was caught two months later.


Caesar made another escape in 1789; he subsequently surrendered and returned to the colony. He escaped again in 1794 but was quickly recaptured. He seriously wounded Aboriginal warrior [[Pemulwuy]] in late 1795. In December, Caesar made his fourth and final escape from custody. Governer [[John Hunter (Royal Navy officer)|John Hunter]] offered a lavish reward for his capture. In February 1796, Caesar was shot and killed by ex-highwayman John Wimbow. Caesar left a daughter, Mary Anne Fisher Power, whom he had fathered with English-born convict Anne Power.
On [[April 29]], [[1789]] he was tried for theft, to which he resorted presumably due to the scarcity of food in the newly established colony. He took to the bush a fortnight later, reportedly with some provisions, an iron pot, and a musket stolen from a marine named Abraham Hand. A dearth of game prevented him from sustaining himself however, and he began to steal food on the outskirts of the settlement. On 26 May he helped himself to a brickmaking gang's rations on [[Brickfield Hill]] and was nearly caught. On the night of June the 6th he tried to steal food from Zachariah Clark, the "house of the colony's assistant commissary for stores", and was caught by a convict named Wm. Saltmarsh.
In July 1789, [[David Collins (governor)|David Collins]], the colony's Judge-Advocate, wrote: <blockquote>This man was always reputed the hardest working convict in the colony; his frame was muscular and well calculated for hard labour; but in his intellects he did not very widely differ from a brute; his appetite was ravenous, for he would in any one day devour the full rations for two days. To gratify this appetite he was compelled to steal from others, and all his thefts were directed to that purpose.</blockquote>


== Early life ==
Caesar was described by Collins after his first recapture as a "wretch" who was "so indifferent about meeting death, that he declared while in confinement, that if he should be hanged, he would create a laugh before he was turned off, by playing off some trick upon the executioner". Governor [[Arthur Phillip]] however, took advantage of Casear's potential as a labourer and had him sent to [[Garden Island, New South Wales|Garden Island]], where he would work in fetters and be provided with vegetables. There he showed good behavior and as a result was eventually allowed to work without iron shackles.
He was born circa 1763.<ref name="adb" /> Early reports stated that he was born in the [[West Indies]],{{Sfn|Chingaipe|2024|p=182}}<ref name=":44" /><ref name=":4" /> though modern historians believe [[Madagascar]] was his place of birth.<ref name="adb"/>{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} His birth name is unknown.{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} The name Caesar was common amongst slaves, and it is likely he was given the name during his [[Atlantic slave trade|enslavement]] in [[Virginia]] or [[South Carolina]] in the late 1770s.<ref name="e">{{Cite web |title=John Caesar |url=https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-106179/ |access-date=2024-07-14 |website=Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade |language=en}}</ref>{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} [[Malagasy peoples|Malagasy people]] were particularly prized in those areas.{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}}


John Caesar had moved to England by 1786. He may have fled to British lines seeking emancipation. It is also possible that his slave owner was a loyalist who returned to England following the [[American Revolutionary War]].{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} By 1786 he was a servant living in the parish of St Paul, [[Deptford]].<ref name="adb" />{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}}
Nevertheless, it didn't take long for Caesar to abscond again; on [[December 22]] he ran away from the island with a week's worth of food by canoe. On the night of the 25th he was able to procure a [[musket]], and survived for a few days by robbing gardens and taking the food of [[Australian Aborigines|Aboriginals]] after frightening them away with his gun. At one point he lost his gun in a garden at [[Rose Hill, New South Wales|Rose Hill]], and was subsequently attacked by natives, leaving him wounded in several places. He turned himself in on the 31st to an Officer on Rose Hill.


== Transportation to Australia ==
On March 6, 1790, Caesar was transported to [[Norfolk Island]] after receiving another pardon from Phillip. He returned to Sydney in [[1793]], and began stealing from the farms and huts on the outskirts of the towns again. He was apprehended and then flogged to little effect, declaring "all that would not make him better."
In 1786, Caesar was charged with stealing £12 from a residence.{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} Later that same year, on 13 March 1786, he was tried at [[Maidstone|Maidstone, Kent]] for stealing another £12 from another residence.{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}}<ref name="adb" /> His sentence was [[Penal transportation|transportation]] to the [[penal colony]] of [[Colony of New South Wales|New South Wales]] for seven years,{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}}<ref name=":0" /><ref name="adb" /> and he was sent to the hulk ''Ceres''.<ref name="adb" /> Caesar embarked on 6 January 1787 on the convict transport ship ''{{ship||Alexander|1783 ship|2}}'' of the [[First Fleet]].<ref name="adb" />{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} He was one of twelve black convicts.{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} In May 1787, his age was estimated as 23, and his occupation was listed as servant or labourer.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=First Fleet |url=http://firstfleet.uow.edu.au/details.aspx?surname=Caesar&gender=&term=&ship=&age=&notes=&-recid=113 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714234551/http://firstfleet.uow.edu.au/details.aspx?surname=Caesar&gender=&term=&ship=&age=&notes=&-recid=113 |archive-date=14 July 2024 |access-date=22 January 2019 |website=firstfleet.uow.edu.au}}</ref>


''Alexander'' arrived in [[Botany Bay]] with the First Fleet on 19 January 1788.<ref name="adb">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2005 |title=John Black Caesar |encyclopedia=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=Australian National University |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/caesar-john-black-12829 |access-date=6 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120720043133/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/caesar-john-black-12829 |archive-date=20 July 2012 |author2=Gillen, Mollie |author=Cunneen, Chris |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="age1">{{cite news | url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-reviews/black-founders-the-unknown-story-of-australias-first-blacksettlers/2006/06/16/1149964726285.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 | title=Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers | work=The Age | date=17 June 2006 | access-date=6 July 2012 | author=Sparrow, Jeff | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325163123/http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-reviews/black-founders-the-unknown-story-of-australias-first-blacksettlers/2006/06/16/1149964726285.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 | archive-date=25 March 2014 | url-status=live | df=dmy-all }}</ref>{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=1}} Caesar gained a reputation in the colony as a conscientious and hard worker.<ref name="adb" /><ref name=":1" />
Caesar later became a hero for capturing [[Pemulwuy]], an Aboriginal who had launched a [[guerilla war]] against the British colonists.


== Escape attempts ==
In [[1795]] he ran away for the last time, forming a gang of runaways in the process. On [[January 29]], [[1796]], a reward of five gallons of rum was offered by Governor [[John Hunter (New South Wales)|John Hunter]] for his capture. Despite almost daily reports of missing property, he was able to evade capture until [[February 15]], when a man named Wimbow, who had been pursuing him with a partner for days, found him in an area of thick brush called Liberty Plains (near what is now the Concord/Strathfield area of Sydney) and shot him. Caesar was taken to the house of Rose and died a few hours later.


=== First escape ===
By some accounts, a man named William Blakehurst first captured Caesar without struggle and was given the reward. Blakehurst then went on a drinking spree with some friends, which ended with him lodging an axe into one of their skulls, resulting in him having a similar reward placed on his head. In another version of the story, Caesar ran away again and was finally caught and shot by one Wimbow.
On 29 April 1789 he was tried for theft and sentenced to a second term of transportation, this time for life. Caesar took to the bush a fortnight later,<ref name="adb" /> reportedly with some provisions, an iron pot, and a [[musket]]{{Sfn|Collins|King|Bass|1798|p=70}} stolen from a marine named Abraham Hand. However, unable to sustain himself owing to the shortage of game, he began to steal food on the outskirts of the settlement.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} [[David Collins (lieutenant governor)|David Collins]] called him "an incorrigibly stubborn black."{{Sfn|Collins|King|Bass|1798|p=70}}

On 26 May he helped himself to a brickmaking gang's rations on [[Brickfield Hill]] and was nearly caught. On the night of 6 June he tried to steal food from the house of Zachariah Clark, the colony's assistant [[commissary]] for stores, and was caught by a convict named William Saltmarsh.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In June/July 1789, [[David Collins (lieutenant governor)|David Collins]], the colony's Judge-Advocate, wrote: <blockquote>This man was always reputed the hardest living convict in the colony; his frame was muscular and well calculated for hard labour; but in his intellects he did not very widely differ from a brute; his appetite was ravenous, for he would in any one day devour the full rations for two days. To gratify this appetite he was compelled to steal from others, and all his thefts were directed to that purpose.{{Sfn|Collins|King|Bass|1798|p=71}}</blockquote>

Caesar was described by Collins after his first recapture as a "wretch" who was "so indifferent about meeting death, that he declared while in confinement, that if he should be hanged, he would create a laugh before he was turned off, by playing off some trick upon the executioner".{{Sfn|Collins|King|Bass|1798|pp=71–72}}

Governor [[Arthur Phillip]] however, took advantage of Caesar's potential as a labourer and had him sent to [[Garden Island, New South Wales|Garden Island]], where he would work in fetters and be provided with vegetables. There he showed good behaviour and as a result was eventually allowed to work without iron belts.<ref name="adb" />{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

=== Second escape ===
Caesar was allowed to work without chains. On 22 December 1789 he escaped in a stolen canoe, taking a gun.<ref name="adb" /> According to Collins:
<blockquote>Caesar the black, whose situation on Garden Island had been some time back rendered more eligible, by being permitted to work without irons, found means to make his escape, with a mind insensible alike to kindness and to punishment, taking with him a canoe which lay there for the convenience of the other people employed on the island, together with a week's provisions belonging to them; and in a visit which he made them a few nights after in his canoe, he took off an iron pot, a musket, and some ammunition.{{Sfn|Collins|King|Bass|1798|pp=|p=90}}</blockquote>
Caesar robbed settlers' gardens, and stole from local Aboriginals, who speared him on 30 January 1790.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article85777960 |title=HISTORY OF PARRAMATTA AND DISTRICT. |newspaper=[[The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate]] |volume=XI |issue=685 |location=New South Wales|date=16 September 1899 |access-date=5 July 2017 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

On 31 January 1790 Caesar handed himself in to camp. Governor Phillip pardoned him and sent Caesar in the [[HMS Supply (1759)|''Supply'']] to [[Norfolk Island]] in March 1790<ref name="adb" /> to assist Doctor Considen.<ref name=":1" /> According to his biography, "By 1 July 1791 he was supporting himself on a lot at Queenborough and was issued with a hog. In January next year he was given one acre (0.4 ha) and ordered to work three days a week."{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Caesar fathered a child with English-born convict Anne Power.{{Sfn|Chingaipe|2024|p=185}}<ref name=":3" /> Anne was similarly tried at Maidstone a year after Caesar.<ref name=":3" /> Their daughter Mary Anne Fisher Power{{Sfn|Chingaipe|2024|p=185}} was born on 4 March 1792.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |title=Ann Poor (1792–?) |url=https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/poor-ann-30497/text37812 |journal=People Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426204453/https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/poor-ann-30497/text37812 |archive-date=26 April 2023 |access-date=21 December 2024}}</ref><ref name="adb" /> Caesar left them both on Norfolk Island when he returned to [[Port Jackson]]{{Sfn|Chingaipe|2024|p=185}}<ref name="adb" /> on the ''[[Kitty (1787 ship)|Kitty]]'' in 1793.<ref name="adb" />

===Third escape===
Caesar escaped briefly again in July 1794 but was captured shortly afterwards.<ref name="adb" />{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=2}}

===Pemulwuy===
Caesar gained some notoriety during his lifetime for his part in seriously wounding the [[Australian Aboriginal|Aboriginal]] ([[Bidjigal]]) warrior [[Pemulwuy]].{{Sfn|Chingaipe|2024|p=185}} Caesar was working with a party at [[Botany Bay]] in late 1795 that came under attack by a group of warriors led by Pemulwuy. Caesar wounded him<ref name="adb" /> by cracking his skull.{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=2}}

During his many skirmishes with European settlers, Pemulwuy is rumored to have been wounded up to seven times, with Caesar being one of the many men to almost end his leadership of the Aboriginal resistance to the [[History of Australia (1788–1850)|European colonisation of Australia]].<ref name="adb" /><ref name="smh1">{{cite news | url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/01/1067597158244.html | title=Australia's oldest murder mystery | work=Sydney Morning Herald | date=1 November 2012 | access-date=6 July 2012 | author=Vincent Smith, Keith | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411155553/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/01/1067597158244.html | archive-date=11 April 2011 | url-status=live | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

===Fourth escape===
Caesar escaped from custody in December 1795 and led a gang of absconders in the Port Jackson area. Settlers were warned against supplying him with ammunition.<ref name="adb" /> On 29 January 1796 Governor [[John Hunter (Royal Navy officer)|John Hunter]] offered a lavish reward of five gallons of rum for his capture.<ref name=":4">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203196018 |title=HISTORY OF THE BUSHRANGERS |newspaper=[[Truth (Brisbane newspaper)|Truth]] |issue=1805 |location=Brisbane |date=28 October 1934 |access-date=5 July 2017 |page=24 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=2}}<ref name="adb" /> According to Collins:
<blockquote>Notwithstanding the reward that had been offered for apprehending black Caesar, he remained at large, and scarcely a morning arrived without a complaint being made to the magistrates of a loss of property supposed to have been occasioned by this man. In fact, every theft that was committed was ascribed to him; a cask of pork was stolen from the millhouse, the upper part of which was accessible, and, the sentinels who had the charge of that building being tried and acquitted, the theft was fixed upon Caesar, or some of the vagabonds who were in the woods, the number of whom at this time amounted to six or eight.{{Sfn|Collins|King|Bass|1798|pp=|p=}}</blockquote>

== Death ==
Ex-highwayman John Wimbow{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=2}} and another man tracked Caesar down at [[Strathfield, New South Wales|Liberty Plains]]. According to David Collins, "This man and another, allured by the reward, had been for some days in quest of [Caesar]. Finding his haunt, they concealed themselves all night at the edge of a brush which they perceived him enter at dusk. In the morning [of 15 February 1796] he came out, when, looking round him and seeing his danger, he presented his musket; but before he could pull the trigger Wimbow fired and shot him."<ref name="collins">{{cite web|first=David|last=Collins|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12565/pg12565-images.html|website=Project Gutenberg|title=An Account of The English Colony in New South Wales Volume One|date=1798}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112791638 |title=TO-DAY. |newspaper=[[The Evening News (Sydney)|Evening News]] |issue=11,459 |location=New South Wales|date=3 March 1904 |access-date=5 July 2017 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=2}}

Caesar was taken to the hut of Thomas Rose where he died of his wounds.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article227527571 |title=THE FIRST GREAT BUSHRANGER. |newspaper=[[The Australian Star]] |issue=2717 |location=New South Wales|date=17 October 1896 |access-date=5 July 2017 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131462477 |title=When New South Wales Declared War On One Man |newspaper=[[The World's News]] |issue=1816 |location=New South Wales|date=30 September 1936 |access-date=5 July 2017 |page=22 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Caesar died on 15 February 1796.<ref name="adb" />{{Sfn|Cheek|2018|p=2}} Collins write, "Thus ended a man, who certainly, during his life, could never have been estimated at more than one remove above the brute, and who had given more trouble than any other convict in the settlement."<ref name="collins"/>

Anne Power died on 25 March 1796 on Norfolk Island.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |title=Ann Poor (c. 1766–1796) |url=https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/poor-ann-30496/text37811 |journal=People Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021517/https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/poor-ann-30496/text37811 |archive-date=9 July 2024 |access-date=21 December 2024}}</ref> Caesar was survived by his daughter, Mary Anne Fisher Power,<ref name=":2" /> who was baptised in 1806.<ref name="adb" /> Mary Anne left Norfolk Island for [[Van Diemen's Land]] in 1814.<ref name=":2" />

==In popular culture==
Caesar's death was illustrated by Percy Lindsay for ''[[Truth (Sydney newspaper)|Truth]]'' in 1934.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=28 October 1934 |title=Bushrangers—Noted and Notorious - "BLACK CAESAR", FIRST OF THE BUSHRANGERS |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169333111# |work=Truth |location=Sydney |pages=19}}</ref>

Caesar appears as a character in [[Thomas Keneally]]'s novel ''[[The Playmaker]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ray |first=Robert J. |date=1987-09-27 |title=A Sex Comedy of Lags and She-Lags : THE PLAYMAKER by Thomas Keneally (Simon & Schuster Inc.: $18.95; 327 pp.) |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-09-27-bk-10367-story.html |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> as well as in the stage adaptation [[Our Country's Good|''Our Country's Good'']].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Real People from Our Country's Good {{!}} Canberra REP |url=https://canberrarep.org.au/content/real-people-our-countrys-good |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=canberrarep.org.au}}</ref>

Mohamed Osman portrayed Caesar in the [[SBS (Australian TV channel)|SBS]] docudrama ''Our African Roots''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Webb |first=Carolyn |date=2021-09-24 |title=Australia's first bushranger - he may not be who you think |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/australia-s-first-bushranger-he-may-not-be-who-you-think-20210922-p58tzj.html |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=The Age |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of convicts transported to Australia]]
*[[African Australians]]


== References ==
== References ==
http://www.convictcreations.com/history/caesare.htm
http://fmpro.uow.edu.au/FirstFleet/FMPro?-db=ff.fp3&-format=detail.htm&-recid=113&-find
http://cedir.uow.edu.au/programs/FirstFleet/s_caesar.html
http://www.nedkellysworld.com.au/bushrangers/caesar_j.htm


=== Citations ===
[[Category:Australian criminals|Caesar, John]]
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Australian outlaws|Caesar, John]]

[[Category:Australian people of African descent|Caesar, John]]
=== Sources ===
[[Category:Bushrangers|Caesar, John]]

[[Category:Convicts transported to Australia|Caesar, John]]
* {{Cite web |last=Cheek |first=Kimberly |date=31 January 2018 |title=Caesar, John ( Black Caesar ) |url=https://projects.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/16-23-106179/John_Caesar_AANB.pdf |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=Oxford African American Studies Center |pages=1–2 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.73395}}
[[Category:Deaths by firearm|Caesar, John]]
*{{Cite book |last=Chingaipe |first=Santilla |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bcNEQAAQBAJ |title=Black Convicts: How slavery shaped Australia |date=2024-10-30 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-76110-724-5 |language=en}}
[[Category:Slaves|Caesar, John]]
*{{Cite book |last1=Collins |first1=David |author-link1=David Collins (lieutenant governor) |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_eRZcAAAAcAAJ_2/ |title=An account of the English colony in New South Wales |last2=King |first2=Philip Gidley |author-link2=Philip Gidley King |last3=Bass |first3=George |date=1798 |publisher=T. Cadell Jr and W. Davies |location=London |publication-date=1798}}
[[Category:1764 births|Caesar, John]]

[[Category:1796 deaths|Caesar, John]]
==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010908164748/http://www.convictcreations.com/history/caesare.htm The first bushranger]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19991201024523/http://fmpro.uow.edu.au/FirstFleet/FMPro?-db=ff.fp3&-format=detail.htm&-recid=113&-find University of Wollongong First Fleet educational website]
* [https://archive.today/20121231063751/http://www.nedkellysworld.com.au/bushrangers/caesar_j.htm JOHN CAESAR (alias Black Caesar)]

{{Bushrangers |state=autocollapse}}
{{Convicts in Australia}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caesar, John}}
[[Category:Australian outlaws]]
[[Category:Bushrangers]]
[[Category:Convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet]]
[[Category:1760s births]]
[[Category:1796 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in New South Wales]]
[[Category:Convict escapees in Australia]]

Latest revision as of 03:01, 25 December 2024

John Caesar
Bornc. 1763
Died15 February 1796(1796-02-15) (aged 32–33)
Cause of deathGunshot wound
Other namesBlack Caesar
OccupationServant
ChildrenMary Anne Fisher Power
Conviction(s)Theft (1786)
Theft (1789)
Criminal penaltyTransportation – 7 years
Transportation – life

John Caesar (c. 1763 – 15 February 1796), nicknamed "Black Caesar",[1] was an 18th-century convict and one of the first people of African descent to arrive in Australia. He is considered to be the first Australian bushranger.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Born in Madagascar, he was enslaved in the United States in the late 1770s. Caesar later moved to south England where he was tried in 1786 for stealing £12. His sentence was transportation to New South Wales for seven years. In January 1788 he arrived in Botany Bay on the First Fleet convict ship Alexander. 15 months later Caesar was tried for theft and sentenced to transportation for life. He escaped into the bush but was caught two months later.

Caesar made another escape in 1789; he subsequently surrendered and returned to the colony. He escaped again in 1794 but was quickly recaptured. He seriously wounded Aboriginal warrior Pemulwuy in late 1795. In December, Caesar made his fourth and final escape from custody. Governer John Hunter offered a lavish reward for his capture. In February 1796, Caesar was shot and killed by ex-highwayman John Wimbow. Caesar left a daughter, Mary Anne Fisher Power, whom he had fathered with English-born convict Anne Power.

Early life

[edit]

He was born circa 1763.[8] Early reports stated that he was born in the West Indies,[4][2][9] though modern historians believe Madagascar was his place of birth.[8][7] His birth name is unknown.[7] The name Caesar was common amongst slaves, and it is likely he was given the name during his enslavement in Virginia or South Carolina in the late 1770s.[10][7] Malagasy people were particularly prized in those areas.[7]

John Caesar had moved to England by 1786. He may have fled to British lines seeking emancipation. It is also possible that his slave owner was a loyalist who returned to England following the American Revolutionary War.[7] By 1786 he was a servant living in the parish of St Paul, Deptford.[8][7]

Transportation to Australia

[edit]

In 1786, Caesar was charged with stealing £12 from a residence.[7] Later that same year, on 13 March 1786, he was tried at Maidstone, Kent for stealing another £12 from another residence.[7][8] His sentence was transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales for seven years,[7][3][8] and he was sent to the hulk Ceres.[8] Caesar embarked on 6 January 1787 on the convict transport ship Alexander of the First Fleet.[8][7] He was one of twelve black convicts.[7] In May 1787, his age was estimated as 23, and his occupation was listed as servant or labourer.[3]

Alexander arrived in Botany Bay with the First Fleet on 19 January 1788.[8][11][7] Caesar gained a reputation in the colony as a conscientious and hard worker.[8][6]

Escape attempts

[edit]

First escape

[edit]

On 29 April 1789 he was tried for theft and sentenced to a second term of transportation, this time for life. Caesar took to the bush a fortnight later,[8] reportedly with some provisions, an iron pot, and a musket[12] stolen from a marine named Abraham Hand. However, unable to sustain himself owing to the shortage of game, he began to steal food on the outskirts of the settlement.[citation needed] David Collins called him "an incorrigibly stubborn black."[12]

On 26 May he helped himself to a brickmaking gang's rations on Brickfield Hill and was nearly caught. On the night of 6 June he tried to steal food from the house of Zachariah Clark, the colony's assistant commissary for stores, and was caught by a convict named William Saltmarsh.[citation needed]

In June/July 1789, David Collins, the colony's Judge-Advocate, wrote:

This man was always reputed the hardest living convict in the colony; his frame was muscular and well calculated for hard labour; but in his intellects he did not very widely differ from a brute; his appetite was ravenous, for he would in any one day devour the full rations for two days. To gratify this appetite he was compelled to steal from others, and all his thefts were directed to that purpose.[13]

Caesar was described by Collins after his first recapture as a "wretch" who was "so indifferent about meeting death, that he declared while in confinement, that if he should be hanged, he would create a laugh before he was turned off, by playing off some trick upon the executioner".[14]

Governor Arthur Phillip however, took advantage of Caesar's potential as a labourer and had him sent to Garden Island, where he would work in fetters and be provided with vegetables. There he showed good behaviour and as a result was eventually allowed to work without iron belts.[8][citation needed]

Second escape

[edit]

Caesar was allowed to work without chains. On 22 December 1789 he escaped in a stolen canoe, taking a gun.[8] According to Collins:

Caesar the black, whose situation on Garden Island had been some time back rendered more eligible, by being permitted to work without irons, found means to make his escape, with a mind insensible alike to kindness and to punishment, taking with him a canoe which lay there for the convenience of the other people employed on the island, together with a week's provisions belonging to them; and in a visit which he made them a few nights after in his canoe, he took off an iron pot, a musket, and some ammunition.[15]

Caesar robbed settlers' gardens, and stole from local Aboriginals, who speared him on 30 January 1790.[6]

On 31 January 1790 Caesar handed himself in to camp. Governor Phillip pardoned him and sent Caesar in the Supply to Norfolk Island in March 1790[8] to assist Doctor Considen.[6] According to his biography, "By 1 July 1791 he was supporting himself on a lot at Queenborough and was issued with a hog. In January next year he was given one acre (0.4 ha) and ordered to work three days a week."[citation needed]

Caesar fathered a child with English-born convict Anne Power.[16][17] Anne was similarly tried at Maidstone a year after Caesar.[17] Their daughter Mary Anne Fisher Power[16] was born on 4 March 1792.[18][8] Caesar left them both on Norfolk Island when he returned to Port Jackson[16][8] on the Kitty in 1793.[8]

Third escape

[edit]

Caesar escaped briefly again in July 1794 but was captured shortly afterwards.[8][19]

Pemulwuy

[edit]

Caesar gained some notoriety during his lifetime for his part in seriously wounding the Aboriginal (Bidjigal) warrior Pemulwuy.[16] Caesar was working with a party at Botany Bay in late 1795 that came under attack by a group of warriors led by Pemulwuy. Caesar wounded him[8] by cracking his skull.[19]

During his many skirmishes with European settlers, Pemulwuy is rumored to have been wounded up to seven times, with Caesar being one of the many men to almost end his leadership of the Aboriginal resistance to the European colonisation of Australia.[8][20]

Fourth escape

[edit]

Caesar escaped from custody in December 1795 and led a gang of absconders in the Port Jackson area. Settlers were warned against supplying him with ammunition.[8] On 29 January 1796 Governor John Hunter offered a lavish reward of five gallons of rum for his capture.[9][19][8] According to Collins:

Notwithstanding the reward that had been offered for apprehending black Caesar, he remained at large, and scarcely a morning arrived without a complaint being made to the magistrates of a loss of property supposed to have been occasioned by this man. In fact, every theft that was committed was ascribed to him; a cask of pork was stolen from the millhouse, the upper part of which was accessible, and, the sentinels who had the charge of that building being tried and acquitted, the theft was fixed upon Caesar, or some of the vagabonds who were in the woods, the number of whom at this time amounted to six or eight.[21]

Death

[edit]

Ex-highwayman John Wimbow[19] and another man tracked Caesar down at Liberty Plains. According to David Collins, "This man and another, allured by the reward, had been for some days in quest of [Caesar]. Finding his haunt, they concealed themselves all night at the edge of a brush which they perceived him enter at dusk. In the morning [of 15 February 1796] he came out, when, looking round him and seeing his danger, he presented his musket; but before he could pull the trigger Wimbow fired and shot him."[22][23][19]

Caesar was taken to the hut of Thomas Rose where he died of his wounds.[24][25] Caesar died on 15 February 1796.[8][19] Collins write, "Thus ended a man, who certainly, during his life, could never have been estimated at more than one remove above the brute, and who had given more trouble than any other convict in the settlement."[22]

Anne Power died on 25 March 1796 on Norfolk Island.[17] Caesar was survived by his daughter, Mary Anne Fisher Power,[18] who was baptised in 1806.[8] Mary Anne left Norfolk Island for Van Diemen's Land in 1814.[18]

[edit]

Caesar's death was illustrated by Percy Lindsay for Truth in 1934.[1]

Caesar appears as a character in Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker,[26] as well as in the stage adaptation Our Country's Good.[27]

Mohamed Osman portrayed Caesar in the SBS docudrama Our African Roots.[28]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Bushrangers—Noted and Notorious - "BLACK CAESAR", FIRST OF THE BUSHRANGERS". Truth. Sydney. 28 October 1934. p. 19.
  2. ^ a b "To-day's True Short Story". The Manning River Times and Advocate for the Northern Coast Districts of New South Wales. Vol. 82. 13 May 1950. p. 5. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ a b c "First Fleet". firstfleet.uow.edu.au. Archived from the original on 14 July 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  4. ^ a b Chingaipe 2024, p. 182.
  5. ^ The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (29 October 2020). "bushranger". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 21 December 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d "HISTORY OF PARRAMATTA AND DISTRICT". The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers' Advocate. Vol. XI, no. 685. New South Wales. 16 September 1899. p. 11. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cheek 2018, p. 1.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Cunneen, Chris; Gillen, Mollie (2005). "John Black Caesar". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. Archived from the original on 20 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  9. ^ a b "HISTORY OF THE BUSHRANGERS". Truth. No. 1805. Brisbane. 28 October 1934. p. 24. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "John Caesar". Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  11. ^ Sparrow, Jeff (17 June 2006). "Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers". The Age. Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  12. ^ a b Collins, King & Bass 1798, p. 70.
  13. ^ Collins, King & Bass 1798, p. 71.
  14. ^ Collins, King & Bass 1798, pp. 71–72.
  15. ^ Collins, King & Bass 1798, p. 90.
  16. ^ a b c d Chingaipe 2024, p. 185.
  17. ^ a b c "Ann Poor (c. 1766–1796)". People Australia. Archived from the original on 9 July 2024. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  18. ^ a b c "Ann Poor (1792–?)". People Australia. Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  19. ^ a b c d e f Cheek 2018, p. 2.
  20. ^ Vincent Smith, Keith (1 November 2012). "Australia's oldest murder mystery". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 11 April 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  21. ^ Collins, King & Bass 1798.
  22. ^ a b Collins, David (1798). "An Account of The English Colony in New South Wales Volume One". Project Gutenberg.
  23. ^ "TO-DAY". Evening News. No. 11, 459. New South Wales. 3 March 1904. p. 2. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. ^ "THE FIRST GREAT BUSHRANGER". The Australian Star. No. 2717. New South Wales. 17 October 1896. p. 7. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  25. ^ "When New South Wales Declared War On One Man". The World's News. No. 1816. New South Wales. 30 September 1936. p. 22. Retrieved 5 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. ^ Ray, Robert J. (27 September 1987). "A Sex Comedy of Lags and She-Lags : THE PLAYMAKER by Thomas Keneally (Simon & Schuster Inc.: $18.95; 327 pp.)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  27. ^ "Real People from Our Country's Good | Canberra REP". canberrarep.org.au. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  28. ^ Webb, Carolyn (24 September 2021). "Australia's first bushranger - he may not be who you think". The Age. Retrieved 16 November 2024.

Sources

[edit]
[edit]