Aaminah

Alonzo: "No... What do you want from me?"

Aaminah: "Justice! Slavers flock the sea... Taking my people from their land and selling them like fruit!"

—Aaminah voicing her anger on the slave trade, 1716.

Aaminah was a female slave-turned-pirate who served under Alonzo Batilla during the early 18th century.

Biography

At some point abducted by slavers, Aaminah was ripped from her family and set to be sold alongside a group of other slaves. While detained on Isla de la Juventud, she would often write letters to her illiterate mother, expressing her intentions to rebel against her captors. Although Aaminah subsequently managed to spark a rebellion amongst the slaves of her ship, she was harshly disciplined by the slavers, only being spared because of her value as a worker.

In July 1716, Aaminah would be rescued from her predicament by Alonzo Batilla, who had done so under the suggestion of Samuel Bellamy. Wanting to take revenge on the slavers, she agreed to join Alonzo's crew if he helped her liberate other slaves.

In August of the same year, Alonzo's ship entered the region where Aaminah had previously been detained, causing her to become anxious. She informed him of the nearby stronghold, which Alonzo then decided to plunder. Despite the appearance of the pirate hunter Alvaro, the pair succeeded in nearing the fort, destroying its defenses and liberating the slaves held inside.

Over the next few months, Aaminah and Alonzo attacked more than two dozen slave ships, disrupting the trade to such an extent that slave markets in Jamaica and Port-au-Prince had to be closed for several weeks. Aaminah eventually achieved an almost mythical status among the slaves, who spoke of her as an "African goddess" that struck terror in the hearts of all slavers.

In May 1717, Aaminah decrypted an encoded letter from Olivier Levasseur, allowing Alonzo to recover his friend's treasure.

Trivia

• Aaminah, derived from Arabic أمن, means "faithful, trustworthy".

Reference

• Assassin's Creed: Pirates