Pirates fascinate and terrify. The phenomenal success of children’s books, blockbuster movies, and popular fiction proves that the rogues of the sea remain transfixed within the Western mind in diverse ways. The steady stream of academic works on piracy demonstrates the scholarly appeal of the subject as well. In this important book, the author examines how the different levels of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English society responded to the actions, images and mythology of piracy in diverse and often unexpected ways.
English piracy was partly a response to the economic conditions of the era. Many circumstances of the era, though having nothing to do with the sea itself, conjoined the maritime and the terrestrial worlds. For example, the continuing practice of enclosing the commons forced many farmers off the land. With depopulation of the landscape, the lack of employment opportunities in the growing towns and villages—as well as in London—drove some of the most desperate into the crews of sea-going outlaws. Burgeoning urban poverty among the “lower orders”, when placed alongside responses to the clever mercantilist language voiced at the top of the social hierarchy, helped fuel the creation of a dominant, persistent pirate myth in the public’s imagination. The social foundation of the narrative saw courageous scofflaws confronting society’s ills while claiming wealth and power on their own terms. The often-exaggerated claim that pirate ships were sites of social equality—where even once-enslaved African runaways could find freedom and dignity—further polished the mythology of the pirate’s life at sea.
Many land-bound Londoners, men and women who might never set foot outside the city, encountered the physical realities of piracy through the lens of punishment. Pirate trials fascinated the public at the same time that the ugliness of London’s prisons demonstrated how a life of crime could end. The prison’s walls might hide the brutal truth from many of the city’s law-abiding residents, but the practice of gibbeting executed pirates on the banks of the Thames presented a horrible and often-unavoidable, albeit often-alluring, spectacle. The tremendous interest in pirate crime and punishment, as exhibited by the era’s newspapers, as well as the popularity of pirate characters in plays and ballads, suggests that many English men and women found the subject of piracy irresistibly terrifying.
The realities of piracy confronted in the halls of justice presented special challenges. Justices and politicians were charged with the prosecution of pirates and judging the truth of specific cases, while on a larger stage they were charged with defining the distinctions between the actions of outlaws (piracy) and the duties of patriots (privateering). State sponsorship determined an act of piracy’s legality, but the ultimate lawfulness rested on the government’s attitudes about colonialism and its international ambitions. Despite the legal manoeuvrings in the chambers of London, anti-piracy laws had little immediate impact in the East and West Indies. Pirates continued to establish towns and outposts in places as diverse as Port Royal, Jamaica and Madagascar.
The year 1730 marks the approximate birth of England’s eventual global dominance of international commerce. Viewed economically, acts of piracy constituted more than simple seaborne robbery; they became a national problem with profound worldwide consequences. Faced with this reality, wealthy merchants strove to counter the public narrative. Lobbyists with ties to the commercial world invented a discourse designed to hide the quest for profit within language infused with themes extolling a patriotic love of nation and an undying respect for the English navy.
The dual causes of commerce (to ensure profit) and patriotism (to ensure security) were the purview of England’s upper class, men and women at the apex of the socioeconomic ladder, and the middle class, those who sought to rise in the hierarchy or at least to hold onto their often-shaky positions. Whereas much of the basest literature about piracy—chapbooks and ballad sheets—were aimed at the lower class, histories of piracy were written by educated individuals and sold at relatively high prices. These tomes demonized pirates, often including subtle clues about the pirates’ social positions in illustrative woodcuts. Small swords in a pirate’s hands reflected the status of a gentleman whereas a brace of pistols demonstrated the pirate’s criminality. Conflicting, class-bound images of piracy confounded the narrative and created diverse social understandings.
Imbedded within the pirate narratives were quiet perspectives on masculinity. Many pirates, though perceived as rouges and whoremongers, maintained wives and children for whom they cared. A few notable female pirates confounded society’s fragile understanding of gender. Popular texts describing women performing male roles and wearing men’s clothing added to the confusion. Female pirates, and the liaisons between male pirates and shore-bound “wenches”, created an intellectual space for the development of a tenacious genre of literature that still exists today. Buried within such titillating tales were profound questions of what it meant to be male and female in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English society.
This is an insightful book. Lincoln succeeds in demonstrating how piracy—lived on the open seas and in far-flung ports—impacted the lives of land-based English citizens regardless of their social station. Her examples are fundamental to her thesis and she has done a superb job of sorting through the copious literature to excavate the most relevant examples. Her final chapter, on the pirates’ inheritance, is an important addition. Her concluding pages confirm the central point of her study: that piracy, as a continual thread running through global history, has societal impact. The recent rise of Somali piracy substantiates piracy’s staying power, even though it bears little resemblance to the pirates of the 1680–1730 era. Piracy has a social resonance that continues to assert itself in disparate ways. The commercialization of piracy today, as a way to market adventure, intrigue and danger, began in the era of Lincoln’s interest. The uneasy juxtaposition between legal criminality and popular appeal, in the past and today, offers intriguing lessons.
