Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "politics"

The Problem of Piracy in the Early Modern World: Maritime Predation, Empire, and the Construction of Authority at Sea by John Coakley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Recent events demonstrate that politics and economics influence what happens in the world. This includes the ebb and flow of piracy, both now and in the past. Depending on the time and place, states tolerate it until the depredations adversely affect commerce or political objectives. This is when states take action to suppress piracy, although fully eradicating it has yet to occur. The Problem of Piracy in the Early Modern World investigates “the relationship between European states and maritime predation, especially in Asian, Atlantic, and European waters between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.” (11)

As the editors point out in the introduction, the lack of a clear-cut definition of who is a pirate complicates these issues as well our attempts to study this phenomenon. To counteract this, these essays focus on specific cases in defined areas, such as the Caribbean or Southeast Asia. The book is divided into three sections: Jurisdiction, Practices, and Representations. The first pertains to how states seek to control seafarers and what they do. The second looks at moments in time when those seafarers are deemed to be pirates. The final section involves how the states or pirates themselves see them. As a result, readers comprehend common themes: “the relationship between pirates and states; the numerous and overlapping motivations for maritime predation; and, finally, the ways in which certain sea raiders were rhetorically made into pirates.” (12)

The editors also examine legal attempts to define piracy and how states use pirates to their advantage when it suits their purpose and suppress them when it does not. The disparity in definitions and individual states’ prejudices play roles in this, as shown in Martin Müller’s “Primitive, Peregrinate, Piratical: Framing Southeast Asian Sea-Nomads in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Discourse and Imperial Practice,” and Anna Diamantouli’s “‘Our Affairs with the Pyratical States’: The United States and the Barbary Crisis, 1784-1797.”

Although the essays discuss actions of a state either for or against pirates, the state’s viewpoint is not the only one presented. Individual authors also analyze the seafarers and what they do before looking at the state’s conduct. What becomes apparent in reading these contributions is that discord at sea, commerce, and colonial expansion are intricately interwoven and as such, generate and intensify the factors that lead to piracy. Examples of this are found in Simon Egan’s “Scots, Castilians, and Other Enemies: Piracy in the Late Medieval Irish Sea World,” John Coakley’s “Local Maritime Jurisdiction in the Early English Caribbean,” and Steven J. Pitt’s “Boston, Logwood, and the Rise and Decline of the Pirates, 1713 to 1728.”

Media coverage also impacts how citizens view pirates and their depredations. Cultural bias influences these presentations, as do how the states wish the public to perceive, for good or bad, those responsible. This leads to misleading interpretations and tropes that cause us to either romanticize or demonize pirates, instead of seeing them for who and what they really are. Sometimes, even the pirates themselves influence how we see them. These are aspects discussed in Wim de Winter’s “Pirate Encounters and Perceptions of Southern-Netherlandish Sailors on the North Sea and the Indian Ocean, 1704-1781,” James Rankine’s “Henry Glasby: Atypical Pirate or a Typical Pirate?”, and Rebecca James’s “‘A Fellow! I think, in all Respects, worthy your Esteem and Favour’: Fellowship and treachery in A General History of the Pyrates, 1724-1734.”

This volume is part of the Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800: Cultures of the Sea series, which examines the cultural transitions from land to oceans as regards commerce, exploration, and travel. In addition to the eight essays found within these pages, there are tables and maps, a bibliography, and an index. Each chapter includes an abstract, keywords, footnotes, and its own list of consulted sources, both primary and secondary, as well as the author’s qualifications for writing the chapter. The editors introduce this volume, while Claire Jowitt pens the afterword.

This book aptly demonstrates two key points: one state’s pirates may not be defined as such by another, and that although maritime depredations exist worldwide, western views on what constitute piracy aren’t universal. For example, Müller shows that until Europeans ventured into Asian waters, piracy was “an unknown phenomenon.” (58)

Two of the most fascinating chapters, from this reviewer’s perspective, are Pitt’s and Rankine’s. While logwood often earns mention in most pirate histories, Pitt examines this subject from a different perspective and shows that its ties to Boston play a role in the rise in piracy following the War of the Spanish Succession. During this discourse, he focuses on Blackbeard and Edward Low, and shows how this seaport both facilitates piracy and influences its decline. Henry Glasby, the subject of Rankine’s chapter, is somewhat of a chameleon; the decisions he makes and the actions he takes allow him to survive both his captivity as one of Bartholomew Roberts’s crew and as a crown witness against the men with whom he serves. From his testimony we view how pirate crews work and the complexity of life aboard a pirate ship.

The Problem of Piracy in the Early Modern World is both insightful and compelling. The price is steep for lay readers, but the content is worth the price for those with a keen interest in pirate history and how the world’s understanding of piracy changes depending on global and individual realities at different periods in time and place. It is also highly recommended for academic collections.


This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers (http://www.cindyvallar.com/Coakley-Kw...)



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Charles Johnson's "General History of the Pyrates" and Global Commerce by Noel Chevalier

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


We tend to view pirates of the past through colored lenses tainted by the present. What we believe may or may not be true, not just because of this significant passage of time but also because an 18th-century author interlaced fact and fiction to create a bestseller – which was most likely his original intent. Today, this work is more often than not viewed as a primary historical document, one written by a contemporary of the pirates, and he may have been one or knew some personally. But what if this collection of “true-crime stories” is far more complex than that? Instead of writing a simple biography on pirates of the day, the author actually wished to provide commentary on commerce, ethics, the law, and politics in the early 1700s.

This is the premise behind Chevalier’s latest book. He makes it clear that when we talk about A General History of the Pyrates, we are not discussing a single edition. This bestseller was sold in different renderings over the course of four years and differences exist between them. Chevalier examines four editions – all published over a four-year period – rather than just using the first published book. These are the original version, published in May 1724 by Charles Rivington; a second edition published in August of that year by Thomas Warner; a third book in 1725 by the same publisher that added an additional pirate; and the 1728 version printed by Thomas Woodward, which consisted of two volumes.

While Chevalier clearly demonstrates that General History is actually a multi-layered book, he also delves into scholars’ attempts to resolve a mystery surrounding this book. For about three centuries, the true identity of its author, Captain Charles Johnson, has been guessed at but never positively pinpointed.

Although the title suggests that Johnson’s book is a history, it’s really a collection of biographies on pirates who lived during a short time span that has become known as the “golden age of piracy.” Those who read below the surface will find references to points of particular interest during the 1720s: colonialism, ethics, politics, society, and trade. According to Chevalier, “Johnson’s General History uses its pirate subject as mirrors of the age, ultimately suggesting that, odious as they are, pirates differ from better-placed criminals only in class, and in the hard punishments meted out to them that their betters almost always escaped.” (xii)

Trade, colonialism, and piracy are intricately entwined, for it's impossible to have one without the others. While the expansion of markets and products lead to greater wealth, this wealth comes at a cost because some trade relies on human trafficking and inhuman working conditions.

Johnson’s commentary may have been about the world in which he lived, but at least some of these observations can be associated with current situations. For example, Sir Robert Walpole was a political powerhouse whose dominance then has relevance to government today. Another similarity involves socioeconomic realities. Changing attitudes are equally relevant, for its easy for friends to become enemies and vice versa.

This volume – part of the Transits: Literature, Thought & Culture, 1650-1850 series – is divided into two sections: “Monsters” and “Great Men” with an interlude that discusses social ethics of the 1720s. Pirates are not stick figures; they are multi-faceted beings just like any other human being. The “Monster” chapters show how General History pirates fit that persona. They threaten the traditional social order. They don’t conform to expectations. They live on the margins. This is why they are monsters who need to be prosecuted and eradicated. Chevalier selects several of Johnson’s pirates to demonstrate this: Blackbeard, Mary Read and Anne Bonny, and Edward Low.

The interlude explores the ethics of wealth and colonial expansion. It may seem odd, but pirates were essential to global commerce. There is ambiguity here because some colonists and merchants welcomed the trade pirates brought, whereas England saw them as interlopers. The latter must be punished; the former must conform. Chevalier focuses on several period publications and the aftermath of the South Sea Bubble. Piracy, however, is not a key subject in the interlude; what he discusses is pertinent to General History and how monsters can also be “Great Men.”

Just because the government or society sees pirates as monsters, they don’t necessarily see themselves that way. While similarities exist between merchants and pirates, it’s not okay for the latter to act like the former. Doing so threatens the social order and makes it difficult for respectable people to understand what “greatness” means. For example, Johnson’s pirates are shown as “intelligent, resourceful, capable leaders,” but in the blink of an eye, they are also portrayed as “violent and cruel.” (110) This ambiguity is illustrated with Bartholomew Roberts, whose piratical activities and captaincy Chevalier likens to a professional businessman. This section also looks at how England developed a proper manner for punishing pirates – one that was public and ritualistic.

To enrich the narrative there are illustrations and an appendix listing the various editions of General History. Endnotes, a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and an index are included.

Chevalier mentions in his preface that he hopes to “open a fuller exploration of General History and its complexities.” (xii) He certainly achieves this, providing readers of Johnson’s book with new ways to examine the pirates within the framework of the society in which they operated. Instead of just seeing General History as an historical document, Chevalier shows that it has far greater depth and is an important example of period literature. As he phrases it, the book “is a study of the phenomenon of piracy as it has manifested itself in Britain between 1714 and 1724 – specifically, the years following the War of the Spanish Succession, the arrival of the Hanoverian monarchy, and the ascendancy of the Whig government.” (28-29) This is key because these and other events pertaining to global commerce impact how Johnson portrays the pirates in the various editions. Although a number of articles have been written about Johnson and General History, Chevalier is the first to examine the book in greater depth as a literary work. In doing so, he illuminates what readers may not understand and provides context to better enrich the reading experience. This allows us to see these pirates as Johnson saw them and to better understand where our ideas of piracy come from.

Even if studies of 18th-century literature aren’t your forte, Chevalier’s book is essential reading. Without it, your understanding of golden age pirates lacks depth because what you read and who they truly were are not and cannot be the same. Highly recommended.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/Chevalier....)



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