about the Black Pearl

More than ten years before the movie Pirates of the Caribbean takes place Captain Jack Sparrow sailed with his Black Pearl and its crew to the Isla de Muerta to take the treasure there: aztec gold. But on his way there Barbossa made a mutiny three days before and made himself Captain of the Black Pearl, let Jack Sparrow alone on an island, stole the aztec gold and got cursed.
The next years Barbossa did a real Pirate's job and made the world fear the Black Pearl as kind of ghost ship.
Ten years later the Black Pearl ran into the port of an island where Jack was in prison - and because Barbossa took the girl of a Will Turner he freed Jack to get help with finding the Black Pearl. And because Jack wanted his Black Pearl back he went with Will.
After he was again left alone - with Elizabeth - on the island, found by the British marine, he could kill Barbossa in a sword fight and at the end get his loved Black Pearl back and be "in freedom" at the end - because that is, what the Black Pearl is for him.

In Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest we realize, the Black Pearl is even faster than the Flying Dutchman, ship of the legendary Davey Jones. Sadly, the huge kraken is everywhere -
at the end of Dead Man's Chest the kraken pulls the Black Pearl (together with Jack on it) into the deep blue water.
In part 3, Jack is rescued from the World's End, and the Black Pearl, too. Barbossa and Jack again both claim to be the owner, and while everybody has his time with the Black Pearl, at the end Jack finds Barbossa shipping away with the Pearl. So last we know is, Barbossa has the Black Pearl and Jack