Related Papers
Evaluating Marcus Rediker’s contention that ‘Piracy represented “crime” on a massive scale. It was a way of life voluntarily chosen by large numbers of men who directly challenged the ways of the society from which they excepted themselves’.
Nathan Petch
The word “pirate” stems from the Classical Greek word “peirates”, which means an attempt or attack. Some scholars have defined it as “violent maritime predation” or “the indiscriminate taking of property with violence”, whereas others have focussed on the economy to understand it as “tribute taking”, “commerce raiding”, or as “a business”. There is substantial debate between maritime historians regarding the main representations of and motives for piracy. Rediker’s Marxist and bottom-up interpretation has inevitably caused controversy, following on from that surrounding historian Eric Hobsbawm with his suggestion of “social banditry” some decades earlier. Several historians, such as Dawdy & Bonni and Curtis, have supported Rediker’s view on piracy as social banditry. According to them, it was an ideologically-driven undertaking that directly challenged the ways of the society from which they had excepted themselves. Many others on the other hand have either criticised or contradicted Rediker’s assertion. Starkey has argued in favour of economic factors as being the main motive for pirates, and that there were “cycles” with this phenomenon. This essay considers the “Golden Age” of piracy – lasting roughly from the start of the eighteenth century until 1730 – and its Atlantic theatre. Overall, it seems that piracy was not social banditry – as suggested by Rediker, but rather a response to economic factors.
The British Contribution to the Development of Piracy in the Golden Age of Piracy
Martin Mares
This work analyses the public perception of the role of privateers and their transition to pirates and examines both negative and positive outcomes in various areas like diplomacy, international trade, legal, racial and gender issues. The entire topic is examined through various cases of pirates including Bartholomew Roberts, Sir Henry Morgan, Thomas Tew, William Kid, Jack Rackham, Stede Bonnet, Edward Teach, Samuel Bellamy, Mary Read, Anne Bony or Henry Avery as well as historical records including letters, trials and pamphlets. Further, this essay discusses an interesting development of piracy from state-funded expeditions into utterly illegal activity driven by various reasons. Particularly the transition between legal, semi-legal and illicit separates England and Great Britain (from 1707 onwards) from other colonial powers such as France, Spain or Dutch. Despite the fact that they all issued privateering licenses and therefore they had to face similar problems connected to privateering, the outburst of piracy in the case of England was so dangerous that England (Great Britain) during the late 17th and early 18th century was called a “nation of pirates”. Hence, this work analyses both legal and practical actions against pirates in British colonies and their effectiveness after 1715. The last part of this essay is dedicated to piracy regarding an alternative way of life for disadvantaged social groups in the 17th and 18th century and contemporary negative or positive portrayal of piracy. The role of liberated “Negroe” and “Mullato” slaves is also examined throu
Pirates, Slaves, and Profligate Rogues: Sailing Under the Jolly Roger in the Black Atlantic
Pirates in the Black Atlantic
2019 •
Victoria Barnett-Woods
The age of piracy in the Atlantic world spanned nearly a century, beginning in 1650 and ending in the late 1720s. The rise of Atlantic piracy coincides with the rise of the increasing maritime trade, particularly with the establishment of the transatlantic slave trade between the African continent and the American colonies. There are multiple accounts of pirate ships that have attacked slavers along the littoral states of either side of the Atlantic. In these moments of piratical enterprise, the “thieves and robbers” of enslaved Africans themselves become themselves the victims of robbery and violence. Also, in these moments, the very embodiment of liberation (the pirate) encounters the distillation of oppression and disenfranchisem*nt (the enslaved). This chapter will discuss the significance of these encounters through the lenses of both transatlantic commerce and the human condition. At the intersection of piracy and the slave trade, there are dozens of stories to be told, and with their telling in this chapter, a new vision of the maritime world demonstrates what it may cost to truly be free. In a series of case studies, this chapter will examine an arc of Atlantic piracy during its golden age. I will establish piratical views toward the enslaved with a close reading of Dampier’s New Voyage Round the World specifically focusing on his time on the Bachelor’s Delight (1697), to then discuss the accounts of four pirate captains at the height of piracy’s “golden age.” These men—Hoar, Kidd, Roberts, and Teach—all gained significant notoriety during their exploits, but also represent the ways in which pirate captains viewed men of African descent within their framework of being “gentlemen of fortune.” For Bartholomew Roberts, for example, one-third of his crew was composed of formerly enslaved men. Both Hoar and Kidd, with unique visions of the capacity of the formerly enslaved, had black men as their Quartermaster-- one of the most critical administrative positions of any vessel. The stories of these men and pirates will be at the heart of this discussion, hopefully illuminating the raw and powerful intersection of trade, slavery, and freedom on the high seas in the early eighteenth century.
Shakespeare’s Pirates: the Politics of Seaborne Crime
Claire Jowitt
This contribution focuses on a particular group of maritime agents in Shakespeare’s plays, namely pirates, and the cultural-political questions they raise.
Voces Novae
Voces Novae "All this Shim-Sham Story of Pyrates is an Impudent Libel upon Great Men": The Suppression of Pirates and the Suppression of Dissent in Walpolean Britain
In September 1717, King George I issued a royal proclamation calling for the suppression of piracy and offered amnesty for those individuals who would abandon their ways. For decades, pirates were the scourge of the Atlantic, committing the most heinous acts of robbery, murder, and terror at sea. The result of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) and the Whig Ascendancy in 1715 placed Britain in the prime opportunity to expand its commercial markets while its imperial rivals attempted to recover from war. This study explores the relationship between the campaign against pirates and state building by examining the British government’s efforts of publicizing its anti-piracy campaign through books, newspapers, and pamphlets in order to affirm state power that maintained the Whig Oligarchy. I argue that the discursive formation of piracy emerging in the public sphere reveals the state’s exercise of power in reclaiming political dominance over both the center and periphery. Pirates threatened the relationship between Britain and its colonies. Discourse became the principle means of changing the subjectivity of piracy, which influenced how the inhabitants of colonial communities came to regard pirates. By altering the piratical subject position—from legitimized marauders to criminal others—Britain would force the alignment of political values and customs between the periphery with the metropole, thereby, moving in the direction of realizing its larger goals of further imperial expansion.
'Parrots and Pieces of Eight’: Recent Trends in Pirate Studies
Claire Jowitt
This article explores the figure of the pirate in literature and criticism. In particular it pays attention to some of the ways literary critics and cultural historians have suggested pirates should be understood: whether as political or sexual radicals, as interceptors of and disrupters to networks of economic and cultural exchange, or as key, if often unrecognised, players in the formation of Empire. The role of pirates and piracy is examined in a number of genres here, but the complex and contradictory ways these exciting but dangerous figures are represented in Renaissance drama is of central concern.
Historiography on piracy
Bruce Tomecko
"Devils on the Deep Blue Sea," Review of Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations, for the H-Atlantic Discussion Network, December 2005 http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=11035
2005 •
Kevin P. McDonald
Women and English piracy 1540 1720 partners and victims of crime
Katherine McAlpine
democracy makgale
Gender plays a poignant role in almost any historical narrative, particularly in the record of piracy and government sponsored privateering. The opportunity for women to embrace various social classes at will in the late 18th century came out of an environment in which ideas about politics, economics, and race continually shifted. Society was in chaos, and social mores, therefore, changed constantly. Even as some pirates transported slaves for profit, others took on former slaves as captains, rejecting religions, nationalities, and former loyalties for the sake of freedom. Female pirates such as Ann Bonny and Mary Read exemplify a case of crossing sexual borders in search of social and economic liberation. They forfeited their femininity to steal, sail, and drink with men, like men. Yet in the end, they intentionally became pregnant – a decidedly female enterprise – to escape imprisonment and death. In the midst of nations' transAtlantic battles for God and money, pirates wrote their own rules. Women fought like men, slaves captained ships, and entire cities fell overnight. Identity, as well as gender, was a mercurial feature, and important so long as it served a purpose. This paper therefore considers not only the motivations that women had for turning to piracy, but also the social conditions that allowed for such radical opportunities.
