Abstract
HE grey dawn light on the morning of May 9, 1782, revealed to the masthead lookout of the Continental frigate Deane a strange sail on the horizon. Even at a distance, he guessed that the vessel with the raked-back masts to leeward was a Bermudian privateer. This late in the War of Independence, only fast runners, privateers, and warships cruised the waters off the Carolinas. She would bring welcome prize money to the Deane's crew, rounding out a highly successful cruise. Capture was almost certain, since she was caught on a lee shore with nowhere to run and her sixteen six-pound cannon were no match for the frigate's twenty-eight twelve-pounders. Trapped and out-gunned, Captain George Kidd struck his colors, and the Bermudian privateer Regulator fell prize to the United States navy.1 The men of the Deane were no doubt amazed to find that seventy of the seventy-five-man crew on the Regulator were black slaves. Kidd and his four officers were the only white men on board. A further surprise occurred at the vice admiralty court trial of the Regulator when, breaking with precedent, the Massachusetts justices offered the slaves among the
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