John Caesar

John Black Caesar, known as Black Caesar for short, (b. 1763, probably Madagascar; † 15 February 1796, Strathfield, New South Wales in Australia) was the first black African convict deported to the convict colony of Australia with the First Fleet. He is also the first bushranger to enter Australian history.

John Caesar worked as a servant in the parish of St Paul in Deptford in England in 1786. For stealing £12, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. He was initially incarcerated on the prison ship Ceres and later transported out of the country. On 26 January 1788 he arrived at Port Jackson on the Alexander, one of the English convict transport ships of the First Fleet in the newly to be established convict colony of Australia.

In the colony, he was initially regarded as a sturdy, hands-on, and obedient convict. On April 29, 1789, John Caesar was again sentenced to life deportation for theft. Two weeks later, he stole weapons and escaped into the rough terrain around Port Jackson. He was captured on June 6, 1789 and put to work in chains. Later, however, the chains were removed from him. On December 22, 1789, he stole a gun and a canoe and escaped again. This escape came to an end on 31 January 1790, when he surrendered after being wounded by an Aboriginal spear.

On 4 March 1790 he was transported on HMS Supply to Norfolk Island, where another convict colony was to be established. There he applied for exemption from punishment. On 1 July 1791 he settled at Queensborough. He received assistance from the colonial administration and was granted land to the extent of 0.4 acres. He was now to work three days a week. With Ann(e) Power, who arrived at the convict colony on the Lady Juliana, a notorious ship of the Second Fleet, in 1790, he had a daughter in common. This was born on 4 March 1792. 12 months after that, John Caesar left his wife and daughter and returned to Port Jackson. There he fled again in July 1794 and was arrested shortly thereafter. At the end of his imprisonment, he announced that he would not reform.

In the late 1795s he was involved in the punitive expedition against the Aboriginal Pemulwuy, leader of the Daruk rebellion. Pemulwuy was fighting against the English occupation of their ancestral land.

In December 1795 Caesar escaped again and became the first Australian bush ranger. He led a group of escaped convicts in the Port Jackson area, where they vagabonded and moved outside colonial laws. On January 29, 1796, Governor John Hunter put a price on his capture. On February 15, 1796, John Wimbow shot him on Liberty Plains (now Strathfield).