Adéwalé
Born to enslaved Ogoni parents in Yoruba, Adéwalé was sold to the owner of a prosperous plantation while still a child. He remained on this plantation, working the fields until his mid-teens, always scheming of ways to escape his predicament but uneasy with the prospect of living life as a fugitive.
Then fortune intervened, giving Adéwalé the sign he needed. Near his sixteenth birthday, a group of buccaneers raided the plantation, robbing it of raw cane, refined sugar, and as many reales as they could find. Seeing this as an opportunity, Adé grabbed a crate of sugar and hauled it aboard one of the longboats the buccaneers had rowed ashore. Surprised to see a slave among them, the buccaneers were nevertheless grateful for the aid and welcomed him among them.
Adé sailed with this first group of men for many years, quickly learning the ways of a seaman and grateful for the chance to develop his own skills and pursue his own passions. And though his life among buccaneers was not free of bigotry, Adé found the prejudice to be more confrontational than restrictive.
In 1715, misfortune struck a cruel blow when the ship Adé was aboard became stuck on a shallow sandbar near the port of Havana. The buccaneers, mostly British at the time, tried desperately to free the trapped vessel, but after catching sight of an approaching Spanish galleon, they abandoned ship, only to be torn apart by schools of circling bull sharks. Adé made peace with his fate and stood his ground.
Taken to Havana for questioning and inspection, the Spanish authorities eventually decided to send Adé to Spain, where they felt he would make an excellent interpreter owing to his fluent command of Spanish, English, and French. Some weeks later, they loaded him aboard one of the galleons that made up their perennial treasure convoy, en route to Seville.
Thanks in large part to a hurricane, however, that trip never took place. With the aid of a young Welsh pirate named Edward Kenway, Adé escaped the bilboes that bound him. Freeing more prisoners as they went, Adé and Edward commandeered a brigantine and set sail just in time to avoid the worst of the storm. When the hurricane passed, Adé was free once more.
From that point forward, Adé sailed as the quartermaster aboard Captain Edward's ship, the Jackdaw. Operating out of Nassau for a time, they grew wealthy from their spoils and lived the lives they had always dreamed of. But Adé was a man who valued the democratic ideals of this pirate community far above the riches they acquired while living within it. As he watched Edward Kenway fall deeper and deeper into a spiral of selfish greed and pointless glory, he began to wonder if there was not a better alternative- a more noble cause that better suited his ideals.
In 1720, these very ideals were put to the test when Captain Kenway sailed to a meeting with the notorious Bartholomew Roberts. Adéwalé had never trusted Roberts and had hoped Edward might come to the same conclusion before it was too late. Unfortunately, Adé's instincts proved correct. In Edward's absence, Roberts' enormous crew attacked the Jackdaw, hoping to subdue her. Adé took command of the brig and sailed her and her crew to safety, regretting the loss of his captain but confident he had made the right decision.
Some months later, Adé resolved to meet with Ah Tabai at the Assassins' village in Tulum. There, he spoke at length with the old Mentor and asked him many questions about their Order. After hearing answers that pleased him greatly, Adé joined the Order and then set about devising a scheme to locate his old captain.
Months later, Adéwalé and the Assassins received word that Edward Kenway had been languishing in a prison in Port Royal for many months. They learned, too, that Mary Read and Anne Bonny had also been taken there. Adé and Ah Tabai put a plan in motion to rescue them. After the escape, a tragic success-Adé returned the Jackdaw intact to Captain Kenway and urged him to visit the Assassins as soon as he was able.
And in due time, Edward Kenway did just that...
