Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "golden-age-of-piracy"

The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths by Benerson Little

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A pirate with an eye patch, and perhaps a wooden leg, wearing tall boots and an earring, with a parrot on his shoulder, and armed with cutlass and pistols. He, or she, drinks rum, might sport a tattoo, and curses up a storm when he’s not saying, “Arr!” This is the quintessential swashbuckling buccaneer of yore . . . or is it?

Most people recognize at least some of this description isn’t true. It’s Hollywood’s version or how writers portray pirates in their novels. Within the pages of this fascinating book, Benerson Little explores the myths associated with piracy and then delves into primary accounts to distinguish between fact and myth. He also explores how these myths may have originated, as well as why real pirates didn’t act as they do on screen and in print.

The book is divided into two parts. Six chapters address myths dealing with pirate violence in “For Some Body Must Be Beaten.” The remaining six chapters focus on pirate society in “The Custom of the Coast.” This study concerns the pirates who lived and preyed between 1655 and 1725. The topics covered are pirate flags and symbols on them; “false optics” and two famous pirates – Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts – who employed these techniques; pirate ships and those upon which they prey; techniques and torture used to gain information from prisoners; sea fights and attacks; duels and weapons; pirates and slaves; women pirates and pirates of color; pirates as revolutionaries and rebels; pirate democracy and utopias; and treasure.

Each chapter opens with a summary narrative that explores an episode from history related to the topic being discussed. The endnotes include the sources used in these condensations. Three examples of such events are Blackbeard’s blockade of Charlestown, the buccaneers crossing the Isthmus of Darien, and the capture of Calico Jack Rackham and his crew. Next Little discusses the myths pertaining to each episode before examining how they became myths and what facts led to this false picture of Golden Age pirates.

Unfamiliar terms are explained in context, and Little clearly identifies whether his conclusions are drawn from known facts or are educated hypotheses based on what period documentation shows. The source material listed in the extensive bibliography reveals not only the depth of his research, but also the numerous archival material and primary documents he consulted. The book includes a center section of illustrations, endnotes, and an index.

While a few other volumes discuss pirate myths, The Golden Age of Piracy goes far beyond these. Little sifts through the popular mythology and purposeful ideological speculation to introduce readers to the real pirates without turning a blind eye to their cruelty and crimes. That he does so in language that any reader will understand makes this a valuable resource and worthwhile addition to any pirate aficionado’s or historian’s library




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The Pirates’ Code: Laws and Life Aboard Ship by Rebecca Simon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Many people may think of pirates as being somewhat chaotic and in favor of anarchy. The opposite is true, as Dr. Simon adeptly demonstrates in her latest book, The Pirates’ Code. Each crew of pirates devised their own set of rules under which they would sail, and these articles of agreement dictated what would happen to anyone who failed to adhere to them. Such codes also indicated how much each pirate received from plunder and how much compensation injured pirates were entitled to. The pirates and their codes under discussion here sailed during the most prolific period of piracy, 1650 to 1730. The earliest mention of such an agreement comes from Alexandre Exquemelin, a buccaneer and the author of The Buccaneers of America. Four other articles of agreement have come down to us. The first, which appeared in a colonial newspaper and an account of thirty-six men tried for piracy, belonged to pirates who sailed with the infamous Edward Low. The other three codes (published in Captain Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates) were from the crews of Bartholomew Roberts, George Lowther, and John Phillips.

After introducing readers to the Golden Age of Piracy and articles of agreement, Dr. Simon divides the rules into individual chapters in which she explores the purpose of each and how it impacts a pirate’s life. The first focuses on work and wages on a pirate ship, providing some comparisons to life in the merchant marine and navy. The second examines punishments; these pertain to both those the pirates suffer when in violation of the rules and what they inflict on captives. Chapter three concerns health and safety, while the fourth explores intimate relationships among pirates (male and/or female). Weaponry, fighting tactics, and safety are covered in chapter five. The subjects of food, drink, and vices are discussed in the sixth and seventh chapters. Entertainment and culture are explored in the final one. She concludes her study of the articles and pirate life with a look at how the pirates bring about their own downfall by the end of the era. Black-and-white illustrations are scattered throughout the book, which also has a center section of color pictures. There are a select list of pirates that includes tidbits about each and a glossary. References, a bibliography, and an index round out the volume.

There are many books that focus on pirates and their lives at sea, but Dr. Simon brings a fresh perspective to this topic by examining them from the lens of their articles of agreement. She provides snippets from contemporary documents and eyewitnesses, be they pirates or victims, to showcase how aspects of the rules impacted what pirates did and how they lived. Specific pirates, some well-known and others who are not, are showcased to validate what is discussed under each rule. Throughout the book she emphasizes that these codes served specific purposes: to safeguard their environment, to minimize conflict among themselves, to maintain loyalty within each crew, and to provide protection from the hazards of working at sea. In other words, the goals of these articles were to gain wealth and stay alive.

The Pirates’ Code is informative, refreshing, and remarkable. It shines a light on a much-discussed topic while also bringing forth new material not found in previous books. Regardless of your level of knowledge of pirate lore, this volume is a treasure for any collection.


(This review was originally published at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/RSimon.htm...)




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Pirates of the Slave Trade: The Battle of Cape Lopez and the Birth of an American Institution by Angela C. Sutton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


History is required in school, but during my youth at least, my teachers didn’t always show how what happened one place was connected with or impacted events happening elsewhere. My research into pirates and the past has taught me that these interconnections do exist. More and more, books that come across my desk strive to show this bigger, often global picture. Pirates of the Slave Trade is one such book.

At first glance, readers may wonder what was the Battle of Cape Lopez. Those familiar with pirate history know of it but more because of what happened at this fight than by its name. It took place off the coast of West Africa on 10 February 1722. The outcome brought about the demise of one of the most prolific pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy, Bartholomew Roberts. The subsequent trials at Cape Coast Castle led to mass hangings of fifty-two pirates. Captain Chaloner Ogle of the British Royal Navy would be honored with knighthood. Piracy began to wane, whereas the buying and selling of slaves increased in scope and intensity. In turn, this led to changes in how Europeans viewed Africans and how Britain and her colonies, especially in what would become the United States, characterized those who were enslaved.

This is, in essence, what Pirates of the Slave Trade is about, but Sutton touches on many peripheral topics related to piracy and slavery. After setting the scene and introducing the main characters, she examines what drew Roberts and his men to Africa. He was neither a stranger to the slave trade – his sailing career started aboard slave ships – nor unknown when he returned to African waters in 1722. (He was already a notorious pirate, having captured more than 400 vessels and murdered a governor.) Captain Ogle, on the other hand, was a pirate hunter, a man determined to end Roberts’s depredations and he possessed the authority to do whatever it took to accomplish the pirates’ eradication.

Sutton also introduces a third man to this equation: John Conny, an Ahantan king who learned the ins and outs of European slave trading operations firsthand and used them to his advantage in what is now Ghana. As he grew more influential and powerful, he sheltered pirates and made it possible for them to prey on ships of the various West India companies in African waters.

The book is divided into two parts. “The Battle of Cape Lopez” identifies principal players and establishes the parameters that lead to the final confrontation between the Royal Navy and the pirates. “The Birth of an American Institution” delves into the battle’s legacy, asking and seeking answers to:

Who were the real gentlemen of fortune here?
And who are they today?
Who benefits from global extraction-based exploitative processes that change the face of the entire world?
And who among us (“us” meaning the national as well as the global population) are left behind? (143-144)

Maps, artwork, and tables accompany the narrative. Footnotes provide additional information on topics mentioned in the text, while endnotes provide citations to source material consulted. There is an index, but no bibliography.

Sutton deftly lays the groundwork on the slave trade and slavery, piracy in Africa, and the people and places involved to orient the reader in the primary purpose of this book. She discusses the trading companies to a fuller degree than is often covered in history volumes. Readers gain a better understanding of before and after, especially as regards slavery in America. She skillfully shows how one incident leads to another and another, showing their interconnectedness and the resultant outcomes. In addition, she utilizes the words and deeds of William Snelgrave, a captain engaged in the slave trade who also became a captive of three pirates, to graphically depict the before and after changes.

Many authors writing books about pirates and their connections to slavery tend to gloss over the details, preferring to mention rather than elucidate. Sutton dares to venture much further into what is a provocative and sometimes incendiary discussion; she does so “with an antiracist lens.” (238) She explains why and lets readers know that they can effect change – a fact that resonates today. Pirates of the Slave Trade is enlightening, thought-provoking, and a must read for anyone who wants a fuller picture of the connections between piracy, the slave trade, and the legacy the downfall of one created for the other.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates & Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/Sutton.html)



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Dead Man's Chest: Exploring the Archaeology of Piracy by Russell K Skowronek

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Archaeology studies what remains of people who lived in the past. History tells us what happened and why. One examines the physical items left behind, whereas the other peruses the written records. Over the years many histories of pirates have been written, but no one had seriously considered studying the archaeology of piracy. Skowronek and Ewen wanted to change that; in 2006, they found other like-minded people and published X Marks the Spot. Ten years later, they brought us Pieces of Eight. In both titles, their intent was not to craft stuffy, pedantic volumes that were meant only for students and practitioners of archaeology. They wished to also share the knowledge found with others interested in maritime piracy. Now, they add a third volume to the mix. Dead Man’s Chest shines a light on new avenues of study and revisits a few finds to provide different perspectives. The sixteen essays found here are written by doctoral candidates, archaeologists, curators, consultants, historians, paleographers, professors, anthropologists, conservationists, archivists, and oceanographers.

Although popular culture tends to celebrate pirates, the men and women who preyed upon merchantmen during the Golden Age of Piracy were actually thieves and murderers who utilized violence and intimidation to acquire their ill-gotten goods. Ewen’s opening salvo shines a thought-provoking light on this reality in “On Celebrating Piracy: But Should We?”

From here, the book is divided into four sections: Pirate Swag: Material Culture Studies, Transatlantic Piracy, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tierra Firma, and Piracy in the Indian Ocean. The first set of essays discusses some of the artifacts that archaeologists have unearthed and what those tell us about pirates. Kimberley P. Kenyon’s “The Stories They Tell: Recent Finds from Queen Anne’s Revenge/La Concorde” highlights recovered items from Blackbeard’s flagship. Since this vessel was a slaver before pirates acquired it, she highlights the dilemma of determining whether an artifact belonged to or was used by pirates (a theme that surfaces in several other essays in the book). Jessie Cragg and Michael Thomin remind us that pirates also lived ashore in “Sail Bags and Black Flags: Identifying Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Pirates.” It concerns a ship that set sail in 1794. Instead of the few weeks it should have taken to arrive at her destination, the voyage lasted five months because pirates attacked twice. In “‘Running a Rig’: Pirates and Archaeology in Video Games,” Coy J. Idol and Katherine D. Thomas discuss the influences of archaeology on Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Jean Soulat’s focus in “The Material Culture of Pirate Wrecks and Lairs: A Reflection of Colonial Archaeology through Multicultural Assemblages from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” explores the delineation of items found at archaeological digs and how it may be possible to differentiate between those that belonged to pirates and those that did not.

The second group of essays continues this comparison between legal and illegal behavior as it relates to piracy. In “Casting Piracy a Line: An Examination of the Influence of Piracy in the Archaeological Record of Two New England Fishing Settlements,” Megan Rhodes Victor shows how difficult it can be to distinguish between fishermen and pirates when they inhabit the same area. Patrick J. Boyle’s “The Archaeology of Lundy Pirates: A Case Study of Material Culture” concerns a known area frequented by pirates and whether found items are connected to pirates. Bradley Rodgers and Jason T. Raupp’s “The Mystery of Morgan’s Island: Archaeological Insights into a Possible Pirate Wreck at Somerset, Bermuda” demonstrates how the confluence of historical documentation and archaeological studies allow for a reexamination of a past event and its proper interpretation.

The third set of essays opens with Kenneth S. Wild’s “What’s to Become of Me? Pirates and Refugees in the Archaeological Landscape of the Virgin Islands.” Here, he focuses on pirateering, a profession where the line between privateering and piracy blurred. Alexandre Coulaud, Nathalie Sellier-Ségard, and Martijn van den Bel demonstrate the possibility of an emerging pattern in locations where pirates are thought to have set up temporary camps in “Pirates at Grand Case Bay, St. Martin (French West Indies): Interpreting Archaeological Evidence from a Late-Seventeenth-Century Settlement.” Tortuga has long been associated with pirates, but archaeological studies of the island have not been possible; Laurent Pavlidis suggests avenues of research should that change in “Mysterious Tortuga Island, Republic of Haiti.” Geraldo J. S. Hostin’s investigation into “The Pirate of Cotinga Island: The History and Archaeology of a Mysterious Shipwreck in the South of Brazil” puts forth a convincing case as to the identity of the pirate who lost his ship in 1718. Lynn B. Harris concentrates on the connections between “Buccaneers and Harpooners of the Miskito Coast.”

Archaeological investigations in the Indian Ocean are the topic of the fourth section of essays. John de Bry and Jean Soulat discuss recent and upcoming explorations of “Pirate Lairs in Ambodifototra Bay (Saint-Marie Island, Madagascar)? Traces of Fortifications and Camps in Archives and Archaeological Remains.” A French expedition discovered one of the earliest pirate shipwrecks in 1979. Soulat, Yann von Arnim, and Patrick Lizé reconsider what archaeologists discovered and how they made their determination in “The Speaker (1702) Pirate Shipwreck on the East Side of Mauritius: Review of Archaeological Data and Research Perspectives.”

The parting shot in this collection comes from Skowronek with “Unpacking the Dead Man’s Chest.” When X Marks the Spot came out, the majority of the research shared came from historical inquiries. Whereas archaeological waters were uncharted then, much like in the days of these pirates, Dead Man’s Chest and its companion volumes show that the archaeology of piracy does exist and can shed new light on pirates and how they lived.

We tend to think of archaeology as stodgy and dull. Sometimes, it takes just one book to show us the error of that thinking. (My awakening came when I read Anna Ritchie’s Viking Scotland.) To find not one but three offerings that achieve this for pirate afficionados is a true treasure trove. Dead Man’s Chest is enlightening, entertaining, and compelling. The pictures, tables, and maps provide us with concrete examples, while the references and index permit us to explore the archaeology of piracy further. Skowronek and Ewen, as well as the contributors, share their enthusiasm and knowledge to mentor and inspire us, whether we are armchair wannabes, exploring a possible career, or already working in the field of archaeology. If you want to know about piracy during the early eighteenth century, Dead Man’s Chest is a must read. Once read, you’ll want to delve into the earlier volumes to learn even more.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates & Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/Skowronek-...)



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