Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden AgeVillains of All Nations is a people's history of piracy--a history that emphasizes how common seamen who turned pirate built for themselves a multicultural, democratic and egalitarian society. This vivid social history of Atlantic piracy focuses on its colorful Golden Age, from 1716 to 1726, the age of the dreaded black flag, the Jolly Roger, as well as swashbuckling figures such as Edward Teach, better known, of course, as Blackbeard. These "outcasts of all nations" imagined--and succeeded in forging--a better world than they had found on the merchant and naval ships on which they had previously worked: they democratically elected their officers, divided their booty in egalitarian way, and fought against the common vicious abuse of sailors. The historical truth about what pirates actually did proves more compelling than the romantic fiction that has grown up around them. |
Contents
A Tale of Two Terrors | |
The Political Arithmetic of Piracy | 15 |
Who Will Go a Pyrating? | 34 |
The New Government of the Ship | 56 |
To Do Justice to Sailors | 79 |
The Women Pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read | 99 |
To Extirpate Them Out of the World | 123 |
Defiance of Death Itself | 144 |
Blood and Gold | 166 |
Notes | 173 |
Acknowledgments | 218 |
Index | 222 |
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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 Delacroix 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 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