Diego "el Mulatto" Grillo (1610-1673)

Summary Label

Self-Emancipated seventeenth-century privateer.

Diego "el Mulatto" Grillo was a self-emancipated slave-turned-privateer active in the Caribbean and Latin America in the seventeenth century.

Title

Diego "el Mulatto" Grillo
(1610-1673)

Aliases: Diego Lucifer, Diego de los Reyes, Diego Martin

Date of Birth

1610

Date of Death

1673

gender

Male

Hometown or Region

Havana, Cuba

Freedom Status

Transition

Occupation

Privateer

Biography

There is disagreement among historians as to whether Diego el Mulatto was an individual or a figure consisting of several individuals. Regardless, he was a menace against Spanish interests throughout the Spanish Caribbean, and he played a significant role in advancing the Dutch foothold into Latin America. The general agreement is that he was born into slavery in Havana, Cuba, possibly to a Spanish mother and an African father, around 1610. He escaped his Spanish overseers in 1629 to enlist with privateers under the Dutch West India Company who raided Spanish ships and settlements in the Gulf of Mexico. He rose through the ranks and quickly gained captaincy over his own ship and crew, and in 1630 he was apparently regarded highly enough that he was invited to the newly established English colony on Providence Island to discuss how Spanish-Dutch relations might impact the colony. In 1633, probably the height of his career, he reportedly led hundreds of multinational pirates in the Dutch expedition to sack Campeche, Mexico, commanded by Jan Janszoon Van Hoorn. After Campeche, he spent time raiding along the coast of Honduras, around Havana, and near Tortuga, where he may have had a base. In 1637 he had a famous encounter with Thomas Gage, a Dominican friar who widely traveled the New World, in which he related some of his life story to the traveler. In 1673 he was reportedly captured and hanged by the Spanish.

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Connected Historical Actor(s)

Thomas Gage, Dominican friar and traveler, and Jan Janszoon Van
Hoorn, privateer and naval commander for the Dutch East India Company.

Student Researcher

Josh Fairhead