European plantations require laws to regulate the plantation system and the many slaves imported to work on the plantations.

This legal control is the most oppressive for slaves inhabiting colonies where they outnumber their European masters and where rebellion is persistent, such as Jamaica.

During the early colonial period, rebellious slaves are harshly punished, with sentences including death by torture; less serious crimes such as assault, theft, or persistent escape attempts are commonly punished with mutilations, such as the cutting off of a hand or a foot.

Slaves can only be freed with the consent of their master under British rule,  and therefore freedom for slaves is rare.

British colonies are able to establish laws through their own legislatures, and the assent of the local island governor and the Crown.

British law considers slaves to be property, and thus does not recognize marriage for slaves, family rights, education for slaves, or the right to religious practices such as holidays.

British law denies all rights to freed slaves, with the exception of the right to a jury trial.

Otherwise, freed slaves have no right to own property, vote or hold office, or even enter some trades.

The French Empire regulates slaves under the Code Noir (Black Code), which is in force throughout the empire from 1685, but which is based upon French practices in the Caribbean colonies.

French law recognized slave marriages, but only with the consent of the master.

French law, like Spanish law, gives legal recognition to marriages between European men and black or Creole women.

French and Spanish laws are also significantly more lenient than British law in recognizing manumission, or the ability of a slave to purchase their freedom and become a "freeman".

Under French law, free slaves gain full rights to citizenship.

The French also extend limited legal rights to slaves, for example the right to own property, and the right to enter contracts.

The West Indies are known as a particularly dangerous posting for soldiers in Colonial times and during the Napoleonic Wars, due to yellow fever being endemic in the area.

The mortality rate in British garrisons in Jamaica is seven times that of garrisons in Canada, mostly because of yellow fever and other tropical diseases.

Both English and French forces posted here are seriously affected by the "yellow jack."

The East India Company has arranged contracts with the Royal African Company by July to supply the necessary African slaves to Jamaica.

Ten pounds is paid for a slave aged over sixteen, eight pounds for one over ten.

Two thirds are to be male, and ninety percent adult.

The company transships twelve hundred and thirty slaves from Jamaica to America in the first year, plus any which might have been added (against standing instructions) by the ship's captains on their own behalf.

On arrival of the first cargoes, the local authorities refuse to accept the Asiento, which has still not been officially confirmed there by the Spanish authorities.

The slaves will eventually be sold at a loss in the West Indies.

Parliament votes in July 1714 "to offer a reward for such person or persons as shall discover the Longitude." (Ten thousand pounds for any method capable of determining a ship's longitude within one degree; fifteen thousand pounds within forty minutes, and twenty thousand pounds within half a degree).

The government announces that a quarter of profits of the South Sea Company will be reserved for the queen and a further seven and a half percent for a financial advisor.

Some members of company board refuse to accept the contract on these terms, and the government is obliged to reverse its decision.

Despite these setbacks, the company persists, having raised two hundred thousand pounds to finance the operations.

The company is heavily dependent on the goodwill of government, and when government changes, so too does the company board.

One of the directors who had been sponsored by Harley, Arthur Moore, had in 1714 attempted to send sixty tons of private goods on board the company ship.

He is dismissed as a director, but the result was the beginning of Harley's fall from favor with the company.

Harley is on July 27 replaced as Lord High treasurer as a result of disagreement that had broken out within the Tory faction in parliament.

The Whigs, within a year of George's accession, win an overwhelming victory in the general election of 1715.

The Prince of Wales (the future King George II) is in the same year elected as Governor of the South Sea Company at the election of directors.

Both the new King, George I, and his son, the Prince of Wales, have significant holdings in the company, as do some prominent Whig politicians, including James Cragg, the Earl of Halifax and Sir Joseph Jekyll.

James Cragg, as Postmaster General, is responsible for intercepting mail on behalf of the government to obtain political and financial information.

All Tory politicians are removed from the board and replaced with businessmen.

Whigs Horatio Townshend, brother in law of Robert Walpole, and the Duke of Argyll are elected directors.

The new government leads to a revival of the companies share value, which had fallen below its issue price.

The previous government had failed to make the interest payments to the company for the last two years, owing more than one million.

The new administration insists the debt be written off, but allows the company to issue new shares to stockholders to the value of the missed payments.

At around ten million pounds, this now represents half the share capital issued in the entire country.

The company in 1714 had two thousand to three thousand shareholders, more than either of its rivals.

Several members of the defeated Tory Party sympathize with the Jacobites, and some disgruntled Tories side with a Jacobite rebellion which becomes known as "The Fifteen".

The Jacobites seek to enthrone Anne's Catholic half-brother, James Stuart (called "James III" by his supporters and "the Pretender" by his opponents).

The Pretender's supporters, led by Lord Mar, an embittered Scottish nobleman who had previously supported the "Glorious Revolution", instigates rebellion in Scotland where support for Jacobitism is stronger than in England.

"The Fifteen", however, is a dismal failure; Lord Mar's battle plans are poor, and the Pretender arrives late with too little money and too few arms.

The rebellion by the end of the year has all but collapsed.

Two thousand six hundred and eighty slaves had been carried in 1714, and thirteen thousand  for 1716–1718, but the trade continues to be unprofitable.

An import duty of thirty-three pieces of eight is charged on each slave, although for purposes of payment slaves are not counted individually, but might only be counted as part slaves according to quality.

Mortality among the slaves is higher than average among more experienced slavers.

One of the extra trade ships had been sent to Cartagena in 1714 carrying woolen goods, despite warnings there was no market for them there, and they had remained unsold for two years.

By the time of the next director's elections in 1718, politics has changed again, with a schism within the Whigs between Walpole's faction supporting the Prince of Wales and James Stanhope supporting the King.

Argyll and Towshend are dismissed as directors, as are surviving Tories Sir Richard Hoare and George Pitt, and King George I becomes Governor.

Four members of parliament remain directors, as do six people holding government financial offices.

The Sword Blade Company remains bankers to the South Sea, and indeed has flourished despite the company’s doubtful legal position.

Blunt remains a South Sea director, as does Sawbridge and they have been joined by Gibbon and Child.

Caswall has retired as a South Sea director to concentrate on the Sword Blade business.

Sub-Governor Bateman, then shortly after Deputy Governor Shepheard, both die in November 1718.

Leaving aside the honorary position of Governor, this leaves the company suddenly without its two most senior and experienced directors.

They are replaced by Sir John Fellowes as Sub-Governor and Charles Joyce as Deputy.

War breaks out in 1718 with Spain once again.

The company's assets in South America are seized, which the company claims cost it three hundred thousand pounds.

Any prospect of profit from trade, for which the company has purchased ships and has been planning its next ventures, disappears.

Hornigold sails in January 1718 (the English had not yet accepted the Gregorian Calendar, so by their point of view, it is January 1717 with the new year of 1718 not starting until March) to Jamaica, where he takes the pardon from the island’s governor.

He later becomes a pirate hunter for the new governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers.

Rogers grants Hornigold's request for a pardon, but commissions him to hunt down other pirates, including his former lieutenant, Teach.