Tag Archives: eighteenth century

THE REPUBLIC OF PIRATES

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Colin Woodard

  This authoritative, readable history of Piracy during its golden age (1670-1730) is told in a journalistic style. There are plenty of details, and an ease which the author moves the reader from one incident, pirate or person to another. Not every pirate enter counter, is described, but the activities of the well-known goons are described well: Avery, Bellamy, Blackbeard, Vane.

  It is surprising that pirates were poor businessmen. They were seventeenth century English colonists in the Western Hemisphere with a poor understanding of risk, enterprise and capital.   They were impulsive, spontaneous, easily offended, humiliated and spendthrifts. 

  It is surprising that pirates were tolerated by English colonists. The governor of North Carolina hosted his friend, Blackbeard, and traded with him. Today those transactions are identified as trafficking and receiving stolen property. Merchants of South Carolina (Charleston) supplied legitimate ships which were stopped by pirates coming out of the Bahamas; those merchants and their friends bought the stolen loot when the pirates came for supplies in Charleston. In New England when pirate ships were beached, the locals came out and looted before telling the cops. Make America Great Again!  

  There were the usual personal crimes (stealing and selling goods and kidnapping) and cruelties by pirates against their victims, but usually they let victims go to return and resume their lives, thinking that there could be an next time. No pirates got rich. Life for a pirate was that of action and the aftermath, stents of riotous commotion and and little else, keeping nothing to have and hope for the future. It was a culture of mostly, white uneducated men (few women, wives of pirates, women in general and persons of other races – Africans were usually sold into slavery). There are no buried treasures. Yet the groupings were somewhat democratic and diplomatic. Pirates consulted with one another; leaders were elected, and pirates followed the rules. 

AS GOOD AS IT CAN BE

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THE REPUBLIC OF PIRATES

COLIN WOODARD

This is a very readable book about diverse subjects who have very little substance. I wanted to learn about pirates who have been characterized in history, by Walt Disney, in cartoons and in art. I read this book, and I learned what happened to them and what happened to the people who put an end to them.

Pirate society, however, is not a republic.. It is similar to a mafia or an organized crime syndicate: get money by anyway possible, generally release the victims so they will go off and work to get more money and property, drink to incapacity every day, rape and otherwise be included in a society of men seeking spontaneity, caprice and ease. Sociologically, pirate society was similar to cults; it has elements of male dominated philosophies and societies which appeared in twentieth century countries where mass-murder was accepted (Germany, Cambodia and Rwanda).

A full analysis of the sociology is likely impossible. There are too few historical sources; projecting modern theories into the Seventieth Century seems impossible.

Despite these shortcomings this book is enjoyably informative. One thing it tells the modern reader is the world of the past was not settled and peaceful. There were murderers, rapists and robbers then. But there were also unusually modern situations which may never be found in any university history. The footnote on page 98 would enliven any book, although I don’t know what it has to do with pirates:

Young Sarah Walker (1700-1731) would eventually marry William Fairfax, for
whom Fairfax County, Virginia is named. Her daughter, Anne, was George
Washington’s mistress, a particularly awkward situation as she was married to
his brother, Lawrence Washington. Anne’s own brother, George Fairfax, apparently
had some African features; he suffered humiliation during a childhood visit to
England when his paternal relatives began speculating aloud as to whether his skin
would turn black at puberty.