Storm of the Sea: Indians and Empires in the Atlantic's Age of Sail

by Matthew R. Bahar

Narratives of cultural encounter in colonial North America often contrast traditional Indian coastal-dwellers and intrepid European seafarers. In Storm of the Sea, Matthew R. Bahar instead tells the forgotten history of Indian pirates hijacking European sailing ships on the rough waters of the north Atlantic and of an Indian navy pressing British seamen into its ranks.

From their earliest encounters with Europeans in the sixteenth century to the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, the Wabanaki Indians of northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes fought to enhance their relationship with the ocean and the colonists it brought to their shores. This native maritime world clashed with the relentless efforts of Europeans to supplant it with one more amenable to their imperial designs. The Wabanaki fortified their longstanding dominion over the region's land- and seascape by co-opting European sailing technology and regularly plundering the waves of European ships, sailors, and cargo. Their campaign of sea and shore brought wealth, honor, and power to their confederacy while alienating colonial neighbors and thwarting English and French imperialism through devastating attacks. Their seaborne raids developed both a punitive and extractive character; they served at once as violent and honorable retribution for the destructive pressures of colonialism in Indian country and as a strategic enterprise to secure valuable plunder. Ashore, Indian diplomats engaged in shrewd transatlantic negotiations with imperial officials of French Acadia and New England.

Positioning Indians into the Age of Sail, Storm of the Sea offers an original perspective on Native American, imperial, and Atlantic history.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Mi'kmaq of present day Nova Scotia/the Canadian Maritimes first encountered Europeans they hijacked and copied their ships, creating a naval raiding culture that would empower them at the expense of their local rivals. This came and went and in the meanwhile European numbers grew. This then in turn inspired the formation of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which combined multiple tribes into an alliance spanning from Maine to Newfoundland that picked up where the Mi'kmaq pioneers had left off. The Wabanaki were amphibious specialists, piloting their shallops and sloops into boarding actions and ambushes largely targeting their English foes. It worked until, like so many other Native powers, it faced unbearable demographic pressure from its assailants.

Figures of native power and resistance in the popular imagination are almost always land bound. Occasionally you find someone who knows about the Tlingit and the wars with Russia, but the popular narrative often overlooks there was an even more extensive trend of east coast Native privateering. In the golden age of piracy it was these tribes who were often some of the most effective practitioners of robbery and war on the high seas. Figures like Madockawondo, who was an effective diplomat and war leader, sought to centralize a state out of this confederacy in the face of settlement pressure, while also keeping his French allies subordinate to his own interests. Captain Mogg, an effective commander who sacked towns, hijacked ships, and once had Boston quaking in fear of his reputation, once served as the Fox McCloud to Massachusetts colony's Governor Andros[s] ('only I have the brains to rule L̶y̶l̶a̶t̶ Massachusetts' he no doubt said).

As a lifelong studier of Native American history, I knew of these things. But I didn't know them in detail. Bahar's book filled this vital gap in my knowledge and did so in a way that was a joy to read. This is a strong recommend for Native and colonial North American history.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me two tries to get through this book. The first time, I was totally turned off by all of the language focusing on the sociology of men and boys and their leadership. It didn't mesh with anything else I had read about the role of Mi’kmaw women. Setting that aside the 2nd attempt, there was a lot of great info that challenges the standard history I learned about the region, growing up in New England. There are many good examples of how the Mi'kmaw used the rivalries between the French and English to their advantage.