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Charleston and the Golden Age of Piracy
From its earliest days, Charleston was a vital port of call and center of trade, which left it vulnerable to seafaring criminals.
The Golden Age of Piracy, encompassing roughly the first quarter of the eighteenth century, produced some of the most outrageous characters in maritime history. The daring exploits of these infamous plunderers made thievery widespread along Charleston's waterfront, but determined citizens would meet the pirate threat head-on. From the "Gentleman Pirate," Stede Bonnet, to Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and famed pirate hunter and statesman William Rhett, the waters surrounding the Holy City have a history as rocky and wild as the high seas. Join author and tour guide Christopher Byrd Downey as he tells the tales of Charleston during piracy's greatest reign.
The Golden Age of Piracy, encompassing roughly the first quarter of the eighteenth century, produced some of the most outrageous characters in maritime history. The daring exploits of these infamous plunderers made thievery widespread along Charleston's waterfront, but determined citizens would meet the pirate threat head-on. From the "Gentleman Pirate," Stede Bonnet, to Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and famed pirate hunter and statesman William Rhett, the waters surrounding the Holy City have a history as rocky and wild as the high seas. Join author and tour guide Christopher Byrd Downey as he tells the tales of Charleston during piracy's greatest reign.
166 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 23, 2013
66 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Byrd Downey
6 books3 followersFrom the author's Amazon.com Bio:
I am an award-winning author of historical non-fiction with eight books to my credit, published internationally and translated into many languages.
My book Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail was an international critical success and was selected as one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 books of 2004. A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates and the Making of the Modern World, was included in the Scientific American Book Club, the History Book Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club as well as being shortlisted for two awards. My next book, Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver, was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors' Association's Lela Common Award for Canadian History and won the 2009 B.C. Book Prize Booksellers' Choice Award.
After the publication of Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, in 2010, I received a phone call from The Right Honourable Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada, telling me how much he enjoyed the book. He stayed up all night reading it, but he said the lost sleep was worth it.
1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half was released in August 2011 in Canada and February 2012 in the United States. 1494 tells the true story involving a corrupt pope - Rodrigo Borgia, the patriarch of the family fictionalized in the hit Showtime series The Borgias - in an explosive feud between monarchs, clergy and explorers that split the globe between Spain and Portugal and made the world's oceans a battleground.
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen was released in the US, Canada and the UK in the fall of 2012 to superior reviews and strong sales. Based on the discovery of hundreds of previously unused magazine and newspaper interviews and profiles, most from the New York Times, it presents a new perspective of Amundsen's personality and life and shows that he lived primarily in the United States for many years rather than in Norway as is commonly assumed.
My author facebook page is www.facebook.com/srbown on which I post interesting historical tidbits related to my writing several times per week. I also have an author website which has a complete list of reviews:
I am an award-winning author of historical non-fiction with eight books to my credit, published internationally and translated into many languages.
My book Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail was an international critical success and was selected as one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 books of 2004. A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates and the Making of the Modern World, was included in the Scientific American Book Club, the History Book Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club as well as being shortlisted for two awards. My next book, Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver, was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors' Association's Lela Common Award for Canadian History and won the 2009 B.C. Book Prize Booksellers' Choice Award.
After the publication of Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, in 2010, I received a phone call from The Right Honourable Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada, telling me how much he enjoyed the book. He stayed up all night reading it, but he said the lost sleep was worth it.
1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half was released in August 2011 in Canada and February 2012 in the United States. 1494 tells the true story involving a corrupt pope - Rodrigo Borgia, the patriarch of the family fictionalized in the hit Showtime series The Borgias - in an explosive feud between monarchs, clergy and explorers that split the globe between Spain and Portugal and made the world's oceans a battleground.
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen was released in the US, Canada and the UK in the fall of 2012 to superior reviews and strong sales. Based on the discovery of hundreds of previously unused magazine and newspaper interviews and profiles, most from the New York Times, it presents a new perspective of Amundsen's personality and life and shows that he lived primarily in the United States for many years rather than in Norway as is commonly assumed.
My author facebook page is www.facebook.com/srbown on which I post interesting historical tidbits related to my writing several times per week. I also have an author website which has a complete list of reviews:
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 28, 2022
Pretty good for a Kindle Unlimited offering! Concise, does what it says on the tin.
September 18, 2020
Entertaining stories of Charles Town pirates.
Very well written, I enjoyed these stories I’ve read many times before, but in a refreshingly concise manner as they related to Charleston. My family emigrated from the Caribbean islands plantations to Charleston during this period of history. This book inspires me to visit this famous city and walk the same streets these pirates once walked. Thank you Captain Byrd for the history lessons! I would recommend this book.
Very well written, I enjoyed these stories I’ve read many times before, but in a refreshingly concise manner as they related to Charleston. My family emigrated from the Caribbean islands plantations to Charleston during this period of history. This book inspires me to visit this famous city and walk the same streets these pirates once walked. Thank you Captain Byrd for the history lessons! I would recommend this book.
December 7, 2025
Lots of details for history buffs!
Plenty of excitement (what do you expect in a book about pirates?) but I bought this book for colonial history of Charleston and was richly rewarded with interesting details. I found a few items I suspected were incorrect (a ship laden with cocoa and sugar bound FOR Martinique?) and a dearth of evidence presented in the legend of Anne Bonney (whose entire story outside Jamaican and Bahamian records seems to have been made up by “Charles Johnson” (Defoe? Mist?) but I still really LOVED this. The well-described photos SHOW us what Charles Town looked like in the day. Now, add this to “This Torrent of Indians” and you have a very good idea what life was like in Charleston during the first two decades of the 18th Century.
Plenty of excitement (what do you expect in a book about pirates?) but I bought this book for colonial history of Charleston and was richly rewarded with interesting details. I found a few items I suspected were incorrect (a ship laden with cocoa and sugar bound FOR Martinique?) and a dearth of evidence presented in the legend of Anne Bonney (whose entire story outside Jamaican and Bahamian records seems to have been made up by “Charles Johnson” (Defoe? Mist?) but I still really LOVED this. The well-described photos SHOW us what Charles Town looked like in the day. Now, add this to “This Torrent of Indians” and you have a very good idea what life was like in Charleston during the first two decades of the 18th Century.
April 19, 2018
This was a great book. Learning more about the pirates that I had already heard about and the ones I didn’t know was wonderful. This book is informative about the pirates in their heyday and the havoc they brought upon Charleston and the seas. A must read.
May 30, 2018
Easy read
A good and accurate history of pirates in Charleston and how and why the city is the way it is.
A good and accurate history of pirates in Charleston and how and why the city is the way it is.
January 14, 2023
Not badly written, but nothing I haven't read before or can't find online.
January 21, 2024
I would’ve never known the deep involvement Charleston had in the Golden Age of Piracy if I had never picked up this book.
January 2, 2025
A good introduction to the pirates & the graft that infected the colonies. The pirate Blackbeard & Stede met their end near Charleston.
June 1, 2018
I enjoyed learning more about the history of my new town! It's amazing how much happened so close to my home. However, I found that the author did not write this in a straightforward timeline. There was a lot of date hopping, which confused me at times. I also thought the book need a concluding note. The book just stops without a wrap-up. Maybe some places in Charleston to learn more about pirate history? An interesting read though, and I learned a lot of cool facts about Blackbeard!
April 17, 2018
Some interesting material, but I found it hard to read and follow.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews