Caribbean Pirates

Led by Mssr. Levasseur, the boucaniers of Hispanola and Tortuga, or Turtle Island, held off many attacks by the Spanish Navy. The boucaniers were not always bloodthirsty pirates. They were originally French and Dutch colonists that hunted the wild cattle on Hispanola and smoked the meat on wooden frames called boucan. Eventually, these islands became a major trading post selling the smoked boucan to sailors for food supplies. The native Carib Indians intermingled with the French settlers. The practice of vodoun is still common today in Hispanola which is better known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Originally developed as a guerrilla tactic by the slaves seeking freedom from the French Plantation owners, vodoun remains an integral part of the political system. Vodoun was a mix of African religious practices and Christianity that serves as a religion and also as a cover for the use of drugs.