Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age"Villains of All Nations" explores the 'Golden Age' of Atlantic piracy (1716-1726) and the infamous generation whose images underlie our modern, romanticized view of pirates. Rediker introduces us to the dreaded black flag, the Jolly Roger; swashbuckling figures such as Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard; and the unnamed, unlimbed pirate who was likely Robert Louis Stevenson's model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. This history shows from the bottom up how sailors emerged from deadly working conditions on merchant and naval ships, turned pirate, and created a starkly different reality aboard their own ships, electing their officers, dividing their booty equitably, and maintaining a multinational social order. The real lives of this motley crew-which included cross-dressing women, people of color, and the'outcasts of all nations'-are far more compelling than contemporary myth. |
Contents
A TALE OF TWO TERRORS | 1 |
THE POLITICAL ARITHMETIC OF PIRACY | 19 |
WHO WILL GO A PYRATING? | 38 |
THE NEW GOVERNMENT OF THE SHIP | 60 |
TO DO JUSTICE TO SAILORS | 83 |
THE WOMEN PIRATES ANNE BONNY AND MARY READ | 103 |
TO EXTIRPATE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD | 127 |
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Common terms and phrases
aboard Account African Alexander Spotswood American Weekly Mercury Anne Bonny Ashton's Memorial Atlantic Bartholomew Roberts Black Bart Bonny and Mary Bonny and Read Boston Gazette Boston News-Letter Boyer British buccaneers Captain Charles Johnson captured Carolina chapter Cocklyn Colman Colonial Cotton Mather Council of Trade crew CSPC death early eighteenth century Eight Persons England English execution Fearful Thing fellow Francis Spriggs freebooters gallows Governor hanged Hayward History of Pyrates Howell Davis Jamaica Jolly Roger Kennedy labor Living London maritime Mary Read merchant captain mutiny nations naval Philip piracy pirate captains pirate ship plunder port Privateering and Piracy Public Record Office quartermaster Rackam Remarkable Criminals reprint Richard royal officials sailed sailors seafaring ship captains Slave Trade social Stede Bonnet terror Trade and Plantations Trials of Eight Tryals of Bonnet turned pirate University Press Vial Poured Virginia Voyage West Indies William Fly William Snelgrave women Woodes Rogers York