About book Villains Of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates In The Golden Age (2004)
This is a fascinating little monograph about the Atlantic Pirates during the "Golden Age" of the 1710s and 1720s. "Atlantic" is the only geographical term that can almost capture the range of piracy that Rediker discusses here. During this period of relative lawlessness on the high seas, pirates operated out of port cities from Boston down through the Carolinas to the Caribbean islands. They also raided the Portuguese slaver fortresses along the west coast of Africa. They established maroon communities everywhere from uninhabited Caribbean islands to the Yucatan peninsula to Madagascar. The end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 marked the beginning of the last great proliferation of Atlantic piracy. It was common practice for the emerging Atlantic powers, like England, France, and the Netherlands, to commission privateers to attack the vessels of the decaying Spanish superpower. Once the war ended, however, many of these privateers decided to go it alone, plundering Spanish shipping and keeping the loot for themselves, rather than passing it on to the European courts. Though initially supported and encouraged by the imperial powers, pirates soon took on their own agenda. Most of them were lower class seamen who had worked on naval or merchant vessels and received deplorable treatment. Well aware of the bleakness and brevity of life at sea in the early eighteenth century, many went a-pirating to spend their short lives with greater autonomy, more equal status with their shipmates, better food, a better share of the booty, and, of course, for adventure. Pirates became "villains of all nations" because they lived for themselves in their own little floating proletarian poleis. They created communities apart from, and in opposition to, the competing imperial powers. They fought under no flag except for their own. Rediker provides a fascinating analysis of how the crews of pirate ships typically governed their affairs while at sea. The captains were elected by the crew, but were given very limited powers that could be mitigated by the quartermaster or revoked by the governing "council" of the ship, of which every crewman was a member. Crews drew up serious constitutions for their ships, and proved remarkably innovative at maintaining a system in which every crew member enjoyed relatively equal status, simultaneously governing and being governed. Pirate crews were often remarkably diverse, with crew members hailing from New England, the Carolinas, the Bahamas, Jamaica, England, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and West Africa (many former slaves served on pirate ships with whites, and they appeared to receive the same treatment). Pirate havens were perhaps some of the most cosmopolitan, multinational, multiethnic societies that existed before the twentieth century. They subverted all the traditional cleavages of authority and nationality. There were also apparently quite a large number of female pirates out there. Many pirate crews had articles forbidding the bringing of women and children on board (as well as laws against sexual assault, interestingly enough), but a number of women not only took to piracy but were apparently quite successful at it. Anne Bonny had a romance with a pirate captain named Jack Rackam, but was disgusted with him when he allowed himself and the crew to be captured without a fight. Later, just before Rackam was to be hanged, Bonny commented that "if he had fought like a Man, he need not have been hang'd like a Dog." That's pretty hardcore. An illustration from Captain Charles Johnson's Historie der Engelsche Zee-Roovers, which depicts a female pirate hoisting a jolly roger over a host of lower-class rabble, may have been the inspiration for Delacroix's famous painting, Liberty Leading the People. The similarities are indeed striking. Thus, the symbol of the female pirate may have given birth to a modern conception of emancipated femininity leading the vanguard of political and societal revolution. To those who worry of having their preconceptions of pirates as rebellious, romantic heroes exploded by reading the findings of authentic historical research about them; don't worry. After reading this book, I have been forced to conclude that pirates are even more cool than I previously thought they were. They were a community of "human waste" that challenged the power structures of their day, and, for a time, succeeded in throwing them off. They should serve as an inspiration for any emancipatory movement of today.
"...damn ye, you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by Laws which rich Men have made for their own Security, for the cowardly Whelps have not the Copurage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery; but damn ye altogether: Damn them for a Pack of crafty Rascals, and you, who serve them, for a Parcel of hen-hearted Numskuls. They villify us, the Scroundrels do, when there is only this Difference, they rob the Poor under the Cover of Law, forsooth, and we plunder the Rich under the Protection of our own Courage."Charles Bellamy, pirate captain.That pretty much sums up the tack taken by Rediker in this history of the "Golden Age of Piracy"--roughly 1716-1726. When the colonial countries ended their wars and the divisions of the New World were pretty much made, the colonial powers dismissed their privateers--pirates employed by the crown or state to harrow their enemies--as they realized that it didn't pay to hamper anyone's theft of New World resources or the Middle Passage supplying slaves.Yet the wretched conditions of most sailors in service to the new merchant class and their exploitation would drive hundreds and maybe thousands to mutiny or defect and sail under the Black Flag.Rediker divides this Golden Age into three brief eras:1) Rebellion and establishment of near anarchic groups under the pirate flag.2) The flourishing of piracy.3) Brutal repression and the desperate fight for survival by pirates as the violence ratcheted up.There's a lot to admire in this book as it lays out the cruelties of the crown and states without glossing over the acts of pirates. Despite the lefty jargon about dialectics and what-not, the read is also fun. Anyone who has ever thought of pirates as cool because they were rebel outlaws will like this book and the rest of you will at least get a brief history lesson.
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This was another work-related read for me, since I did an article on it because the author is a local professor and we were tying this in to the latest Pirates of the Carribean movie, to show what life was really like for pirates and their pursuers. While it is more in the academic mode, it is well written and very informative. I was struck by what short period was covered by the ascendancy of the Atlantic pirates, whose lives have led to so many fictional tales and common lore. Equally compelling was learning how much the pirate trade was related to brutal treatment of merchant and Royal sailors during this period, and how the pirates own code of conduct had an honor and moral tone to it that might surprise you.
—Mark
Not so much an account of the exploits of individual pirates or their crews (although full of anecdotes), "Villains" is Rediker's broader analysis of the lifestyle, social structures, and culture of pirates in what he refers to as their "Golden Age". Rediker (who co-authored the highly recommended "Many Headed Hydra" with Peter Linebaugh) delves into the lives of merchant seamen during the early eighteenth century and the reasoning behind their common turn to piracy. The social structure that "freebooters" created on their ships, with it's fluid hierarchies and equalized distribution of wealth, in many ways prefigured what they felt was a just and "honest" society - one that ran counter to their experiences as hired seamen or naval employees. Pirates are all over our popular imagination, and "Villains" puts much of this into an appreciated and well-researched perspective.
—Shaun
After reading The Many-headed Hydra co-authored by Peter Linebaugh, I picked this book up. Although Rediker follows the same theme as that previous work, the tone of Villains of All Nations is more academic and less overtly political. That's not to say that Rediker does not continue the materialist theme developed in The Many-Headed Hydra, which is that piracy of the 17th & 18th Century was both encouraged by and a reaction against the political and social policies of the Great Powers. The book develops a number of ideas. First, pirates were largely proletariat, reacting to perceived injustices committed against them by the Crown and the merchant class. Piracy represented an escape from bondage (both from poverty and impressment) as well as a means of creating a new egalitarian social order. Pirate society was participatory; their articles had codes for limiting the power of their captains, an equitable system for sharing loot, and even a form of disability insurance. In this, as well as in their decisions to plunder or pass on captured merchant ships, pirates perceived themselves as following a particular (albeit contrary to the larger society) moral code. This moral code has its origin in what pirates consider to be just relations between a merchant captain and crew, but also extends into other realms of just social relations. Rediker devotes a chapter on Anne Read and Mary Bonny to build a modest case for their feminist influence on the larger culture (although he concedes that Victorian attitudes towards femininity during the 19th Century reversed any progress made).Far more interesting is the various interests aligned against piracy. From encouraging piracy during the Queen Anne's War (War of Spanish Succession), England devoted more of its resources to expunging pirates to the degree that it interfered with emerging trade interests (by "trade interests" I mean exploitation of natural and human resources). As sugar, slaves, and flour in turn became hot commodities, the war against pirates - who represented the greatest resistance to capital - intensified, until 1726 when piracy was effectively exterminated. This is a great alternative to the Hollywood stereotypes about pirates. Viewed within the larger (and typically cruel) social context, this book serves to humanize those who have historically been demonized, presenting them as sympathetic figures without reducing them to the comical, like more recent films have done. Maybe someday soon the Somali "pirates" will get a similar treatment.
—Jerome
