Overview
The action takes place in the Caribbean at the turn of the 18th century, in a world not unlike our own. In Europe, the Nine Years' War is over, but any peace between the powers of Europe is fragile at best and illusory at worst. In the Caribbean, privateers carry on hostilities on a freelance basis, but with official sanction, at least until they overstep their letters of marque.
Many of the colonies are thriving, with plantations producing goods for export back to England. Tobacco is still important, but as the craze for tea gains momentum, sugar is threatening its dominance. But the price of this gathering boom is paid in blood; slavery forms the basis of the economy, while the Island Caribs and other native peoples have been displaced and, in some cases, deliberately exterminated.
Contrasts, then, are bold and sometimes stark. This is a world of opportunity, freedom and adventure. It is also a world of oppression, servitude and pain. There are currents that run deep beneath the glittering seas of the Caribbean, waiting to drag down and away the unwary and unwitting. But, for those who learn to navigate in these seas, there are, perhaps, secrets waiting to be uncovered, secrets worth the knowing.
The action takes place in the Caribbean at the turn of the 18th century, in a world not unlike our own. In Europe, the Nine Years' War is over, but any peace between the powers of Europe is fragile at best and illusory at worst. In the Caribbean, privateers carry on hostilities on a freelance basis, but with official sanction, at least until they overstep their letters of marque.
Many of the colonies are thriving, with plantations producing goods for export back to England. Tobacco is still important, but as the craze for tea gains momentum, sugar is threatening its dominance. But the price of this gathering boom is paid in blood; slavery forms the basis of the economy, while the Island Caribs and other native peoples have been displaced and, in some cases, deliberately exterminated.
Contrasts, then, are bold and sometimes stark. This is a world of opportunity, freedom and adventure. It is also a world of oppression, servitude and pain. There are currents that run deep beneath the glittering seas of the Caribbean, waiting to drag down and away the unwary and unwitting. But, for those who learn to navigate in these seas, there are, perhaps, secrets waiting to be uncovered, secrets worth the knowing.
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