Pirates

Question 1

What did Marcus Rediker argue?

Answer 1

argued that despite these men being branded as criminals, they established egalitarian communities where wealth and power was distributed evenly, and their rebellion was a reaction to the harsh conditions within the merchant and naval service. Yet, their existence was fragile, with no real economic security.

Question 2

Rediker key quotes

Answer 2

“their legacy remains a compelling historical phenomenon”

“men lived beyond the church, family, and disciplined labour”

“created a space where ordinary men had “the choice in themselves”.

Question 3

how did rediker see the pirates themselves

Answer 3

“Men who directly challenged the harsh ways of maritime society…way of life typically chosen” writes that men used the sea to distance themselves from the power of the state.

Question 4

rediker stats

Answer 4

• 18-2,400 1716-18
• 1,500-2,000 1719-22
• 1,000-1,500 –> 200 1723-26

Question 5

John C Appleby what does he explore

Answer 5

-Explores the complex relationship between pirates and local communities in Elizabethan England & Wales.
-Highlights how piracy thrived as both a criminal enterprise and quasi-legitimate economic activity.

Question 6

what sources does appleby use to find out more about pirates?

Answer 6

o Privy council records, merchant complaints, Sir Francis Drake & John Callice, local reports (Dorset), proclamations from Tudor monarchs for suppression of piracy.

Question 7

‘Towards a Generalised Theory of Piracy’

Answer 7

Shannon Dawdy & Joe Bonni

Question 8

who were Dawdy & Bonnie

Answer 8

• Anthropologists – interested in the culture of intellectual piracy, a collective identity (even if online) linking themselves to Golden Age Piracy

Question 9

What comes into people’s heads when they hear the word pirate?

Answer 9

D&B
- Survey of anglophone pop-culture show pirates characterised as: predators, parasites, criminals, outlaws, rebels, heroes, heroines, evildoers, buffoons, armed robbers, liberators, robin hoods, bloodthirsty killers.

Question 10

What are the key characteristics of pirates according to Dawdy and Bonnie?

Answer 10

D&B
- Economic protests & anti-capitalism, social banditry, organised group activity, moral ambiguity
- Rediker presents them as social bandits (Marxist view) – people with a particular ethos – to create a more democratic society.

Question 11

What types of pirates are there according to Bonnie and Dawdy

Answer 11

• Pirate – sea bandit, seizes property/people by force
• Privateer – operating under legal license “letter of marque” authorised to attack enemy ships during wartime, keeping contractual share of seized goods.
• Smuggler – trader dealing with contraband goods
• Freebooter – profit-sharing mercenary
• Buccaneer – castaway colonists, survived by hunting and raising livestock
• Corsair – originally referred to a fast-sailing ship, extended to mean mercenary coast guard or customs agents along the Barbary Coast of North Africa.

Question 12

Do Dawdy and Bonnie think it is possible to come to a single definition of piracy?

Answer 12

• Authors make clear their ambiguity, making it difficult to fit them into a universally accepted definition, as the concept evolves across time and cultural contexts, and is influenced by the point of view of the observers – pirates can be seen as villains, rebels, or heroes depending on the context.

Question 13

Why be a pirate?

Answer 13

• 73% sailors/mariners
• Prospect of plunder
• Pushed from land drawn to piracy
• Unemployment seasonal work
• Poor treatment/pay in the navy
• Minimal risk of being caught/punished
• Attraction of better life and more money, landed elites remained and controlled resources, success as pirate only chance to do more than what you were born into

Question 14

‘Black Rebels: the cimarrons of sixteenth cnetury Panama’

Answer 14

Ruth Pike

Question 15

Can we know how cimarrons viewed themselves and their position with regards to imperial authority?

Answer 15

• Escaped African slaves who lived freely in Panama and resisted Spanish Colonial rule during the sixteenth century.
• Rejected colonial authorities, fought for autonomy & preservation of their community’s way of life, creating communities based on African customs
• Took African Americans as prisoners of war, they knew how to fight, elite groups in their societies, likely to rebel & fight.
• Read against the grain, get hints (without accounts from the people themselves), breaking off into different cultural groups. After being grouped together as ‘Africans’ by Europeans.

Question 16

What role did the Caribbean as a space play in fostering these relationships?

Answer 16

• Position of Isthmus of Panama and proximity to the Caribbean Sea allowed Cimarrons to interact with pirates who also sought to undermine Spanish authority.
• Familiarity with the terrain (jungles, paths between Caribbean 7 pacific) made them valuable allies to the pirates (relied on as guides and collaborators)
• Mutual benefit
• Francis Drake Alliance – goal of raiding Spanish settlements to disrupt the flow of wealth and weaken colonial control.
• Cimarrons provided food, shelter, and military aid to pirates, and in return pirates declared captured black slaves free, which strengthened their bond with the cimarrons.
• These interactions turned the space into a zone of persistent resistance and rebellion against Spanish colonial power.

Question 17

How did Europeans view non-European groups of Outlaws?

Answer 17

• Suspicion, fear, disdain
• Seen as threat to control of Spanish colonial holdings & obstacle for Spanish control over American territories.
• Spanish did come to agreements with some cimarron leaders, granting them freedom and land in exchange for peace, demonstrating both the threat they posed and the necessity of compromise.

Question 18

What do different types of sources tell us about these attitudes? (Non-European Outlaws)

Answer 18

• Provides varied perspectives on European attitudes toward non-European groups of outlaws like the cimarrons and pirates – reflect complexity of colonial power dynamics
• Travel accounts – show respect, acted as useful allies
• Legal and religious documents – condemn cimarrons rebellion against established order
• Modern secondary sources – reinterpret these attitudes, acknowledging cimarrons fight for freedom and recognise them as active participants in resisting colonial oppression, rather than more outlaws.

Question 19

Why were the Spanish so concerned about these people? (Cimarrons)

Answer 19

• Loosing labour force, owned capital and possessions, others follow the same route
• Going against the Catholic Church, they were forced to be baptised, Christianised, once they rebelled, they returned to heretic status.

Question 20

How did Cimarrons make a living?

Answer 20

• Acted like outlaws: attacked and concentrated in ports between the route from Panama to the Caribbean
• Rough landscapes, ravines
• Critical transport route – using mules, sense of how rough and difficult this key route was, rough country
• Outlaws strung out across these lands, ambush points, places to hide, hard to protect yourself, need armed guards.

Question 21

who compares somali pirates to golden age pirates?

Answer 21

Max Boot

Question 22

Boot stats on somali pirates

Answer 22

hostage fees up to 100 million in recent years (2009), making piracy one of the most lucrative industries and pirates one of the biggest employers in Somalia.

over 20 countries and their naval power have been ineffective and unable to police the more than one million square miles of ocean that is transited by over 33,000 cargo vessels every year.

Question 23

Boot quote from 1700s

Answer 23

Colonel John Biddulph: “the East Indian ship was never safe from attack, with the chance of slavery or a cruel death to crew and passengers in case of capture. there was no peace on the ocean. the sea was a vast no man’s domain, where every man might take his prey”.

Question 24

What does Boot write about the North African Barbarossa?

Answer 24

had the blessing of the ottoman emperor to turn them into bases for sea raiding, which they remained for the next three centuries. involved in hijacking ships from Christian nations, selling their cargoes, and either ransoming the passengers and crew back to their families or selling them into slavery.

Question 25

Boot Algiers stats

Answer 25

able to hold 30,000 Christian captives.

Question 26

Jan Rogozinski quote

Answer 26

called the red sea men “the most successful criminals in human history”

Question 27

name of most successful pirate and number of looted ships

Answer 27

Black Bart, 400 ships, makes Edward Teach, Blackbeard look like childs play (worked from north Carolina)

Question 28

Example of court taking advantage of pirates

Answer 28

Sir Henry Morgan

Question 29

overview of what changed in the view of piracy in the seventeenth century according to max boot

Answer 29

• trade as primary source of Empire’s wealth
• less tolerable

Question 30

what did the court remove in the seventeenth century against piracy max boot

Answer 30

corrupt officials, Governor Nicholas Trott of the Bahamas 1696, year later Governor Benjamin Fletcher of New York

Question 31

what legal changes were made in the 1700s in changing attitudes to pirates - max boot

Answer 31

1700 parliament set up new courts that could convene abroad to try pirates, compiles with those from the ranks of naval officers and colonial officers rather than ordinary judges/jurors. they were denied legal representation

Question 32

What did they expand in the fight against pirates?

Answer 32

expanded the british navy

1718 had 124 ships

1815 214 ships

also cooperated with other western forces

Question 33

what did the fight against pirates risk according to max boot?

Answer 33

rooting out pirates meatn risking not only an international incident but also full-scale war.