WEBVTT 1 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:24.120 Hello, and welcome to Western civ Episode four seventy eight Pirates. 2 00:00:24.839 --> 00:00:27.879 But first a quick foray back to Peter the Great 3 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:30.640 in the winter of seventeen ten. We need to start 4 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:35.079 to turn our attention to the real conflict that's going 5 00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:38.399 to define Russia's relationship to Europe and the rest of 6 00:00:38.439 --> 00:00:42.479 the world, that with the Ottoman Empire. Because in seventeen 7 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:46.679 sen a conflict started to flare up along the frontiers 8 00:00:46.679 --> 00:00:49.640 of Europe and Asia. Czar Peter the Great of Russia 9 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:53.000 and Saltan Ahmed the Third of the Ottoman Empire drew 10 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:57.520 their mighty realms together for a brief but important prelude 11 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:00.280 to the conflicts that we're going to come. This was 12 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.079 not a border skimmish, I want to be clear. This 13 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:07.319 was The Russo Turkish War of seventeen ten to seventeen eleven. 14 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:11.920 Was a brief but dramatic escalation in the long saga 15 00:01:11.959 --> 00:01:15.760 of confrontation between the Christian Orthodox Russians and the Muslim 16 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:20.439 Mottoman Empire, each of which wanted supremacy over the contested 17 00:01:20.519 --> 00:01:25.439 lands of Eastern Europe and critically access to the Black Sea. Now, 18 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:29.159 the war's spark did not ignite in Moscow or Constantinople, 19 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:31.640 but in the fields of Poltava a battle, and we 20 00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:34.359 mentioned a couple of times. That was when in July 21 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:37.640 of seventeen oh nine, Peter the Great delivered a crushing 22 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:41.400 defeat to Charles the twelfth of Sweden, a battle that 23 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:45.400 marked a turning point in the Great Northern War. Humiliated 24 00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:48.400 and wounded, Charles fled with a small band of royal 25 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:54.359 retainers across the Neper River and into Ottoman territory. What 26 00:01:54.560 --> 00:02:00.519 he wanted was two things, refuge and revenge. Charles presence 27 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:05.200 at the Ottoman court provided a volatile mix, a restless 28 00:02:05.239 --> 00:02:10.400 and charismatic figure. He constantly berated the Sultan and his ministers, 29 00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:13.639 portraying Peter as this growing threat to Islam, to the 30 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:16.919 balance of power, and to the Ottoman Empire and its dignity. 31 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:20.879 He urged Amid the Third to take up arms, not 32 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:23.199 only to defend the sanctuary of an honored guest, but 33 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:27.199 to strike a blow against Russian ambition. While Peter was 34 00:02:27.240 --> 00:02:32.479 still entangled in European conflicts and the Ottomans frankly had 35 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:36.479 cause to be concerned here, Russian influence was expanding southward 36 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:39.400 into the Step and the Ukrainian lands, once ruled by 37 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:43.960 the Crimean Tartars and Ottoman vassals. The fortress of Asov, 38 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:47.439 captured by Peter in sixteen ninety six, stood as a 39 00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:51.599 symbol of Russian encroachment toward the Black Sea. Now, with 40 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:55.039 Charles the twelfth whispering in his ear and Peter's power 41 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:58.639 on the rise, the Sultan was persuaded the time had 42 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:03.479 come for the Ottoman to make a stand now. Peter, 43 00:03:03.639 --> 00:03:06.680 for his part, believed that he could cow the Ottomans 44 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:11.400 into neutrality with diplomacy, but his emissaries, ill timed, over 45 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:14.639 confidence and maybe just a bit too blunt, failed to 46 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:19.080 ease tensions. When the Saltan declared war in late seventeen ten, 47 00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:23.439 Peter responded with surprising boldness. Rather than wait for the 48 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:26.520 Ottomans to strike, he led a Russian army of nearly 49 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:30.719 forty thousand men into Madavia in the summer of seventeen eleven. 50 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:35.319 It was bold, yeah, sure, it was also extremely dangerous. 51 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:40.159 Peter intended to join forces with the Moldovian ruler Dmitri Cantemer, 52 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:44.120 who had pledged his support and promised local supplies, but 53 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:50.120 the Ottomans were prepared and they moved decisively. Grand Vizier 54 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:54.360 Baltaki Memet Pasha led a force at least twice as big, 55 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:59.360 supported by Crimean Tartar cavalry and irregulars, and they were 56 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:03.639 able to complet depletely encircled the Russian advance. By July, 57 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:07.080 Peter's forces found themselves trapped on the banks of the 58 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:11.960 Pruth River. The Moldovian countryside proved barren and unsupportive, and 59 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:17.399 the promised provisions never arrived in sufficient quantity. Heat, hunger, disease, 60 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:20.720 it all racked the Russian camp. As Peter wrote in 61 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:23.639 his letter to his wife Katherine, quote, our army is 62 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:27.519 in a most desperate situation, with no hope but in 63 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:31.639 God and in your courage. And it was at this moment, 64 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.800 under the scorching summer sun, as the ring of Ottoman 65 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:39.160 soldiers closed tighter and tighter around the Russian camp, that 66 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:44.480 a really extraordinary event happened. Catherine, then still Peter's consort 67 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:47.639 and not yet Empress, accompanied her husband on the campaign. 68 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:51.639 As the crisis deepened. She played an unusual role for 69 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:55.319 a royal consort. She gathered the court's jewelry and her 70 00:04:55.319 --> 00:04:58.600 own treasures into a chest and then sent them along 71 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:02.439 with a diplomatic appeal to the Ottoman busier. To be clear, 72 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:08.480 this was a bribe, plain and simple. Babm Met Pasha, 73 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:14.160 though poised for victory, remained cautious. His army had the 74 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:18.040 Russians surrounded. Yes, that's true, but he feared prolonging the 75 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:22.519 campaign because who knew fortune and the tide of war 76 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:26.040 could turn against him, as it so often did. He 77 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:29.399 knew the train was harsh, he knew that supplies were short, 78 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:31.879 even though he had more, and he knew that the 79 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:36.959 Tartars were unruly allies at the best. Perhaps more crucially, 80 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:40.480 he feared that an all out assault on Peter might 81 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:46.319 provoke a broader European war. The bribe rich, generous and timely, 82 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:51.079 offered a face saving way to end the standoff, and 83 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:53.399 so on the twenty first of July seventeen eleven, the 84 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:56.399 two sides reached an agreement known as the Treaty of Pruth. 85 00:05:56.920 --> 00:05:59.800 The terms were relatively mild for the Russians, considering the 86 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:03.560 fact that they were totally surrounded. Peter agreed to one, 87 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:08.360 returned the fortress of Asov to the Ottomans to dismantle 88 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:12.920 newly built Russian forts along the Nista River. Three cease 89 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.360 interference in Polish affairs and abandoned his support for anti 90 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:20.680 Ottoman elements in the Balkans. And four allowed the defeated 91 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:25.040 Charles the twelfth to return freely to Sweden. In return, 92 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:28.759 the Russian army was permitted to withdraw intact, and the 93 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:32.480 war ended almost as fast as it started. For Peter, 94 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:37.639 it was a big setback. It was an ignoble retreat, true, 95 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:41.600 but it had not been a catastrophe for the Ottomans. 96 00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:46.000 It was a diplomatic success, but with many, including the 97 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:50.480 janissaries in Pallas faction, outraged that Peter had been allowed 98 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:55.519 to escape, escapegoat was necessary, while taki met met Pasha 99 00:06:55.879 --> 00:06:59.639 was quickly dismissed, a casualty of internal politics and the 100 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:04.759 salt desire to deflect blame. True, the War of seventeen 101 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:08.680 ten to seventeen eleven was brief and frankly anticlimactic, but 102 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:12.600 it left its mark. The loss of Azov halted Russian 103 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:17.360 ambitions toward the Black Sea, at least temporarily. Peter, chastened, 104 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:21.439 but undeterred, turned back to his grand project of westernization 105 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:26.240 and centralization. Catherine would later become empress in her own right, 106 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:29.839 and the story of her face in the calm of 107 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:33.759 crisis that the Proof became part of a romanov legend. 108 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:39.079 As for Charles the twelfth, he didn't go home. He 109 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:43.000 lingered in Ottoman lands for years, a royal guest turned prisoner, 110 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:47.199 before he finally made a dramatic escape. His crusade against 111 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:51.480 Peter ultimately failed, and Sweden's time as a great power ended. 112 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.560 And so the Proof campaign closed with neither a thunderous 113 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:59.839 battle nor glorious triumph, but with a quiet retreat and 114 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.839 stack of signed papers. It was a moment of imperial 115 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:07.800 brinksmanship and reminded all of Europe just how much things 116 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:11.000 were changing, but how much at the moment they also 117 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:17.959 remained the same. In the early years of the eighteenth century, 118 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:21.800 France wanted to carve out a new empire along the 119 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:25.399 twisting waterways of the North American Frontier. Was a bold 120 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:28.439 vision for control that would link their holdings in Canada 121 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.720 to the Gulf of Mexico and into the Caribbean, which 122 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.120 we'll talk about in a moment. It would be fought 123 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:38.519 through a series of forts, trading posts, and settlements at 124 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:40.399 the very heart of a vision would rise a city 125 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:43.120 unlike any other in the French colonial world. Frankly, their 126 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:48.879 only success, New Orleans, a city burn of mud, ambition, 127 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:54.200 imperial dreams, and Delta realities. Frankly, the story of New 128 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:57.279 Orleans begins decades before its founding, with the voyage of 129 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:01.159 Renee Robert Cavier Sieur de Salla, who was born in 130 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:04.120 sixteen eighty two and journeyed down the Mississippi River and 131 00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:08.080 it's claimed entire basin for France. He named its La 132 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:12.480 Luisiana in honor of the King Louis the fourteenth. Though 133 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:16.519 Lassalle's efforts to settle the Gulf coast failed disastrously, he 134 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:19.480 was actually murdered by his own man in a failed 135 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:24.720 expedition to Texas, his claim remained. In the years that followed, 136 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:28.320 the French grew increasingly anxious about Spanish and English ambition 137 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:31.840 in the region. The Mississippi River, they well understood, was 138 00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:35.320 the key to controlling the continent's interior, and its mouth 139 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:38.440 would be the gateway to an empire. But holding that 140 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:43.039 key would require a foothold near the Gulf, an output 141 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:47.120 that could withstand storms, hostile powers, and of course, the 142 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:50.080 perils of a terrain that's so swampy it's actually below 143 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:55.159 sea level. Enter stage left. Jean Baptiste le Moyen de 144 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:59.240 Bndal a Canadian born officer and colonial administrator with a 145 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:01.960 sharp mind and a tireless sense of duty to France, 146 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:04.720 and he had explored the lower Mississippi as early as 147 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:08.600 sixteen ninety nine with his brother Pierre le Moyne de Libertae, 148 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:12.600 and by seventeen eighteen Bienville had become the de facto 149 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:16.480 leader of France's southern colony. He had established settlements at 150 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:19.240 Mobile in Biloxi, but he saw the need for a 151 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:24.240 much more strategic site, something farther upriver, less exposed to hurricanes, 152 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:27.840 and better situated for trade in So in the spring 153 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:31.919 of seventeen eighteen, Bimville made his decision. He ordered a 154 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.879 new city built on a crescent bend of the Mississippi River, 155 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:38.679 about one hundred miles from its mouth. The land was low, 156 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:42.759 marshy and flanked by swamps and bayous, but Bienville believed 157 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:47.279 it offered three crucial advantages. Proximity to the river, access 158 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:51.360 to Lake ponm train via Bayous Street Saint John, and 159 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:56.960 bitfensibility should foreign natives threaten the Gulf coast. The site 160 00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:02.480 was therefore christened La Nouvelle Orleons, in honor of Philippe, 161 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:05.960 the second Duke of Orleans, the regent of France during 162 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:09.440 the minority of the now King Louis the fifteenth But 163 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:12.559 there was very little that was regal about the land itself. 164 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.559 According to one French officer quote, the site of New 165 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:21.679 Orleans is the worst in all of Louisiana, full of mosquitoes, snakes, 166 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:28.759 and stagnant water. Still the work began. The early years 167 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:32.200 of New Orleans were a lesson in perseverance. The labor 168 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:35.320 was grueling. Much of it was carried out by enslaved Africans, 169 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:39.080 who were forced to clear cypress groves, dig canals, and 170 00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:44.000 haul timber and searing heat. Bienville relied heavily on enslaved labor, 171 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:47.320 not only because it was cheap and durable, but because 172 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:51.799 African workers brought knowledge of rice cultivation, drainage, and tropical 173 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:56.200 survival that proved essential in a hostile landscape. The French 174 00:11:56.240 --> 00:11:59.679 also imposed labor obligations on convicts and indentured servants sent 175 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:04.159 from rants. Some were debtors, others were prostitutes, petty criminals, 176 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:07.639 or political reasons. In fact, I did this in a 177 00:12:07.679 --> 00:12:10.720 book a couple of years ago Filais des Cassette women 178 00:12:10.919 --> 00:12:13.279 who were sent to balance the gender ratio of the 179 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:16.559 colony and encourage permanent settlement, whether they wanted to go 180 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:21.480 or not. By seventeen twenty one, the layout of the 181 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:25.639 city had started to take shape. Engineer Adrian de Pager 182 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:29.399 drafted a formal street grid, which today we call the 183 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:33.840 French Quarter. It has sixty six square blocks radiating from 184 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:38.080 the Palace des Arms, known later as Jackson Square. The 185 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:40.960 streets bore the name of saints, royal family members in 186 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:47.159 prominent nobles chartres. Royal bourbon timber houses with pitched roofs 187 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:50.879 and raised foundations began slowly but steadily to line the 188 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:55.919 muddy streets. In seventeen twenty two, just four years after 189 00:12:55.960 --> 00:12:59.320 its founding, New Orleans became the capital of French Louisiana, 190 00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:05.159 replaced Biloxi. The decision with both strategic and symbolic. New 191 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:08.120 Orleans was now not only a port and military post, 192 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:11.320 but he was the administrative and cultural heart of France's 193 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:16.799 southern colony. The city, however, remained a precarious settlement. In 194 00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:20.879 that exact same year, seventeen twenty two, a hurricane devastated 195 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:24.960 most of what had been built. Pauger himself died shortly thereafter, 196 00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:30.559 likely from disease, but the colony persisted. Trade trickled up 197 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:34.639 the Mississippian out to the Caribbean, Sugar, tobacco, furs, and 198 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:38.519 indigo moved through the port. Slavery expanded, and so did 199 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:42.399 the city's population of free people of color, Creole, and 200 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:44.960 Native peoples who lived on the margins of the colony 201 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:49.600 and its economy. In seventeen twenty seven, a French visitor 202 00:13:49.639 --> 00:13:52.799 described the city as quote an odd mixture of elegance 203 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:55.559 and decay. Were the scent of perfume mixes with that 204 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:58.120 of the swamp, and the sound of the church bell's 205 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:02.559 echo over the cries of the marketplace end quote. By 206 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.360 the seventeen thirties and seventeen forties, New Orleans had begun 207 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:09.840 to develop a unique cultural identity. It was a city 208 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:16.120 of contradictions, Catholic, of course, but raucous, hierarchical, but very fluid, French, 209 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:21.080 but already full of African, Caribbean and indigenous influences. Music, 210 00:14:21.159 --> 00:14:24.159 markets and languages blended in the humid air. The city 211 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:27.039 became a gateway for enslaved Africans, but also a refuge 212 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:30.840 for some who found ways through military service, manumission, or 213 00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:35.240 skilled labor to rechieve freedom. New Orleans was still small, 214 00:14:35.320 --> 00:14:38.240 maybe only fifteen hundred people by the mid eighteenth century, 215 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.399 but it was alive. It had become, in the words 216 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:45.039 of one colonial official, a town born not of stone 217 00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:48.279 and law, but of river and rumor empire and entropy. 218 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:52.039 The founding of New Orleans was not a straightforward tale 219 00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:55.799 of triumph. It was a muddy gamble, born of geopolitical 220 00:14:55.799 --> 00:14:59.480 anxiety and sustained through the labor of the enslaved, the 221 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:02.360 ambition of a colonial elite, and the resilience of those 222 00:15:02.360 --> 00:15:05.240 with little choice but to survive in its swamps and shadows. 223 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:09.039 But from that precarious start is going to grow, I 224 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:13.240 think personally, the most distinctive city in the United States, 225 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:17.559 a place where empire ironically once staked its claim and 226 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:20.440 where culture would one day bloom in ways that the 227 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:28.360 French court could never have imagined. To the south of 228 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.559 New Orleans and the glittering waters of the Caribbean, where 229 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:35.039 Spanish galleons once sailed heavy with New World gold. There 230 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:37.840 were rows in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, 231 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:42.879 a lawless brotherhood that haunted the seas. These were the 232 00:15:42.919 --> 00:15:46.840 pirates of the so called Golden Age of piracy. This 233 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:50.519 was a ragged, brutal, and quite frankly, often misunderstood group 234 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:55.240 of seafarers who struck fear into empires and fascination into 235 00:15:55.320 --> 00:16:01.000 us today. They operated in crumbling havens like Nassau, Tortuga 236 00:16:01.159 --> 00:16:04.360 and Port Royal, where the rum flowed and kings held 237 00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:08.200 no sway, where a man could become rich or dead 238 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:11.919 by the turn of the tide. Now, the roots of 239 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:15.480 the pirate age weren't forged in lawlessness alone, but honestly 240 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:20.200 throughout the building of empire. In the late sixteen hundreds, 241 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:23.960 the great European powers Spain, England, France and the Netherlands 242 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:28.039 waged constant battles for dominance over the Caribbean and the Americas. 243 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:32.960 The Spanish, first to colonize the region, grew steadily wealthy 244 00:16:33.159 --> 00:16:36.320 on silver and sugar from the Indies in Peru, but 245 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:39.159 they were stretched thin and their treasure fleets became tempting 246 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:44.960 targets for their rivals enter stage left privateers. These were 247 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:49.440 state sanctioned raiders like Francis Drake and Henry Morgan, who 248 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:52.200 sailed under the flag of their crown and had what 249 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:55.399 was called a letter of mark. A letter of mark 250 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:57.759 was kind of like, how should I put this a 251 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:01.080 navy on the cheap? So if you didn't want to 252 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:03.679 build a navy, but you had a group of investors 253 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:05.799 who had a ship and had some cannons, and some 254 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:09.480 guys who weren't above slitting a few throats, you could 255 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:11.279 give them a litter of mark, which is the right 256 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:14.480 to attack the vessels of a country you're at war with. 257 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:19.960 These men blurred the lines frankly between piracy and patriotism. 258 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:22.759 They plundered with official blessing at least all their targets 259 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:25.359 were the enemies of the realm. But peace, when it 260 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:28.079 came in the early eighteenth century after the War of 261 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:34.240 Spanish Succession, suddenly put thousands of privateers out of a job. 262 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:37.319 The crowns of Europe had no more use for them. 263 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:41.119 Sailors who had been trained in violence found themselves unemployed 264 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:44.599 in a region where sugar barons grew rich and common 265 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:50.200 men starved, so they turned to piracy, not out of insanity, 266 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:52.799 but as a means of survival and to an extent, 267 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:58.440 of revenge. Nowhere in the Caribbean did piracy flourish more 268 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:03.640 than Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. There, 269 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:07.319 in the second decade of the seventeen hundreds, hundreds of 270 00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:10.359 pirates gathered and declared what became known, at least in 271 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:14.839 myth as the Pirate Republic. They flew the Jolly Roger, 272 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:18.319 answered to no king, and governed themselves with a code 273 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:22.240 of conduct that, crude as it was, offered sailors more 274 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:27.640 freedom and more fairness than in merchant marine navies. At 275 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:30.480 the center of this fraternity stood the names that we 276 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:34.720 still know today, Charles Vain, the fiery Englishman who defied 277 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:39.079 both kings and fellow pirates. Calico Jack Rackham, whose banner 278 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:43.319 showed a skull above crosswords. And Bonnie and Mary Reid, 279 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:46.480 two women who disguised themselves as men so they could 280 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:50.039 join the brotherhood of plunder. But the most feared of 281 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:53.119 all was a towering figure with smoke in his beard 282 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:56.559 and fire in his eyes. He was born by the 283 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:01.160 name Edward Teach perhaps Bach, We're not sure, but history 284 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:06.480 knows him as Blackbeard. Blackbeard first emerged in the historical 285 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:11.079 record around seventeen sixteen, having served a deprivateer during the wars. 286 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:16.680 He was tall and broad shouldered, according to Captain Charles Johnson, 287 00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:20.160 an early chronicler of pirates whose seventeen twenty four book 288 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:24.359 A General History of the Pirates remains foundational. If embellished, 289 00:19:25.319 --> 00:19:29.000 black Beard would weave lit fuses into his beard before battle, 290 00:19:29.319 --> 00:19:32.119 so smoke curled around his face like some demon of 291 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:36.920 the deep. He captained a fearsome warship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, 292 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:40.680 a former French slave ship that he fitted with forty guns. 293 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:44.759 With it, he blockaded the port of Charleston, South Carolina 294 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:48.680 in seventeen eighteen, holding the entire city hostage until the 295 00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:52.759 citizens delivered a chest of medicine for his crew. Yet, 296 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:57.720 Blackbeard's terror was mostly theatrical. According to Johnson, quote, it 297 00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:59.799 was a principle of his not to do mischief to 298 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:02.359 those he took if they did not resist end quote. 299 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:06.519 His was a reign of psychological warfare, where image and 300 00:20:06.599 --> 00:20:10.799 reputation did most of the work for him. Still, his 301 00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:14.559 defiance of authority couldn't go unanswered. When Blackbeard accepted a 302 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:17.759 royal pardon and briefly settled in North Carolina, he did 303 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:21.519 not stay tame for long. Rumors swirled that he resumed 304 00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:25.839 piracy with the quiet consent of corrupt colonial officials. In 305 00:20:25.880 --> 00:20:31.079 November of seventeen eighteen, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood sent Lieutenant 306 00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:34.400 Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy to hunt him down. 307 00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:39.640 The final confrontation came near Aroca Coke Island. In a 308 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:44.640 brutal hand hand fight, Maynard's men boarded Blackbeard's sloop. It 309 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:48.559 said that Blackbeard took five bullets and over twenty sword 310 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:52.359 wounds until he finally fell. His head was cut off 311 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:55.559 and hung from the bow spirit of Maynard's ship, a 312 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:00.480 grim warning to those who would follow his path. Beard's 313 00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:04.319 death did not end the piracy, but it signaled its turning. 314 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:08.839 By the seventeen twenties, the major colonial powers began cracking 315 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:12.839 down with greater force. The British Royal Navy was deployed 316 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:17.519 to the West Indies. Governors offered pardons to repentant pirates, 317 00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:21.039 and the ports that once welcomed the outlaw crews were 318 00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:25.680 slowly brought to heal. The dream of pirate freedom unraveled. 319 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.000 Many of the most infamous captains were hanged, Charles Vaine 320 00:21:30.039 --> 00:21:34.400 in seventeen twenty one, Calico Jack in seventeen twenty Mary 321 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:37.759 Reid died in prison, and Bonnie disappeared from the record. 322 00:21:38.359 --> 00:21:41.200 Some say she escaped, others say she married and vanished 323 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:45.759 into quiet anonymity. In the mid seventeen thirties, a golden 324 00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:48.759 age of Caribbean piracy was all but over. The sea 325 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:51.559 was no longer a place of anarchy. It was once 326 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:56.000 again the highway of empire at the age of Pirates 327 00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:59.359 never truly died. It lived on, of course, in ballots 328 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:01.599 and tails, told in taverns, and in the minds of 329 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:06.079 those who romanticize their exploits. The pirate flag would slowly 330 00:22:06.119 --> 00:22:09.799 become a symbol not only a plunder but of liberty. Now. 331 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:13.680 Of course, in reality, piracy was brutal business. It was 332 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:18.039 born of hardship, desperation, of violence. But within its ranks 333 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.640 were glimpses of something new, something that was altogether more 334 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:24.759 common in the New World, a place where people who 335 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:28.200 were low born could rise, where slaves could win freedom, 336 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:32.039 where women fought as men, and where empires could be 337 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:37.440 mocked with impunity. The Caribbean, once choked with golden laden galleons, 338 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:41.400 became the stage for this strange drama, and amid the 339 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:44.480 poems and trade winds, the ghost of Blackbeard still lnkers, 340 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:49.400 his name spoken not in fear but in legend. Now, 341 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:52.559 next time, we're going to start a little story arc 342 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:55.680 as we get into what's called the Seven Years' War 343 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.519 in Europe, or the French and Indian War if you're 344 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:01.799 more familiar in North Amyerica. That's going to set the 345 00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:04.680 stage as we turn to our next major historical epoch, 346 00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:08.279 which will of course be the age of the American Revolution.