WEBVTT 1 00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:13.800 The year is seventeen twenty five. You're a sailor chopped 2 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:17.399 on a merchant ship, and during backbreaking work and brutal conditions, 3 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:21.079 your quarters, cramped and crawling with disease, are shared with 4 00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:26.559 enslaved people, Your wages paltry if they ever come, and 5 00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:28.359 the whip is never far from reach. 6 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:33.000 Then over the horizon a ship emerges, It's black flag 7 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:36.280 billowing in the wind. As it closes in, you see them, 8 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:39.840 a crew of outlaws, men and women of every race, 9 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:44.079 clad and stolen finery and ragged silks. They shout, laugh 10 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:47.399 and rifle through cargo. There's no fear in their faces, 11 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:50.119 only defiance, only freedom. 12 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:53.039 One of them calls to you, why break your back 13 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:56.079 for a captain who sees you as nothing? Take your share, 14 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:58.119 take your life. 15 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:01.240 You have a choice, stay and die defending the profits 16 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:04.239 of your employers, or leap into a life of rebellion 17 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:05.120 on the high seas. 18 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:07.959 This is working class history. 19 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:22.959 Ala Martina ha Oh, bela child, bela child, bela child, 20 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:26.200 Chochio Lamatino. 21 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:31.400 Before we get started, you may have noticed there's a 22 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:33.799 new voice with me today who also doesn't have a 23 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:36.840 British accent. My friend and colleague Audrey is here and 24 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:38.560 I want to let her introduce herself. 25 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:42.480 Hi. I'm Audre Kemp. I'm a journalist and community organizer. 26 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:45.719 I've spent years covering labor and power, and I'm excited 27 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:47.120 to dive into this story with you all. 28 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:50.040 And as always, our podcast is brought to you by 29 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:53.359 our Patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work and in 30 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.079 return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes without ads, 31 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:01.480 bonus episodes, free and discounted merchandise, and other For example, 32 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:03.760 our patreons of orders can listen to both parts of 33 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:07.359 this double episode without ads. Now join us or find 34 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:10.360 out more at patreon dot com slash working Class history 35 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:11.800 link in the show notes. 36 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:17.080 Yes, greetings, my name is Marcus Reddicker, and I am 37 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.360 the author of a book called Villains of All Nations. 38 00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:25.680 Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age, published by Beacon Press 39 00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:26.919 in two thousand and four. 40 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:30.199 Marcus describes in his book that to the authorities of 41 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:33.719 their time, pirates were seen as dangerous outlaws. The term 42 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:37.520 pirate comes from a Greek word meaning one who attacks ships, 43 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.280 and Roman law labeled them quote enemies of all mankind. 44 00:02:41.960 --> 00:02:45.439 By the early eighteenth century, piracy had become a crisis 45 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:49.520 for European empires. During this time, an estimated five thousand 46 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:52.919 to ten thousand pirates prowled the seas, seizing hundreds of 47 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:56.759 merchant ships, looting cargo and disrupting trades so severely that 48 00:02:56.840 --> 00:03:00.360 insurance rates skyrocketed and navy scrambled to hunt them down. 49 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:03.360 And they didn't just take ships, they took riches that 50 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:05.639 rivaled the fortunes of entire colonies. 51 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:08.479 One of the most legendary pirate raids took place in 52 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:12.039 seventeen twenty one, when John Taylor and Olivier le Vassel 53 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:16.120 seized the Portuguese treasure ship Nosus Sonora Dicabo off the 54 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:20.000 coast of Yennom Island. The hall diamonds, gold, and other 55 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:23.400 treasures worth around two hundred million US dollars in today's currency, 56 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:26.240 making it one of the richest pirate captures in history. 57 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:30.000 But piracy wasn't just about plunder. It was a response 58 00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:32.360 to the brutal conditions of early capitalism. 59 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:37.439 Global trade enriched merchants and shipowners, but sailors were left behind. 60 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:41.599 They were underpaid, overworked, and eventually disposable. 61 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:45.120 Many turned to piracy not just to survive, but to 62 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:47.479 escape a system that had abandoned them. 63 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:51.280 The pirates strived to build something new, a society where 64 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:54.560 they elected their own leaders, shared their plunder equally, and 65 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:56.719 lived on their own terms. 66 00:03:56.319 --> 00:03:58.639 And their rebellion would define what we now call the 67 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.759 Golden Age of Piracy, spanning from the sixteen fifties to 68 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:07.280 the seventeen thirties. During this era, figures like Blackbeard, Bartholomew Blackbart, Roberts, 69 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.520 and Anne Bonnie made their names. Roberts, who's one of 70 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:13.840 the most successful pirates ever, captured over four hundred ships 71 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:14.719 throughout his career. 72 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:19.519 Anne Bonnie and Mary Reid, both women fought alongside their crewmates, 73 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:22.360 disguising themselves in men's clothing to claim their place in 74 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:25.399 battle and defy the gender norms of their time. 75 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:28.920 And then there was Blackbeard, who set his own beard 76 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:31.079 on fire to terrify his enemies. 77 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.240 The Golden Age of Piracy looms very large in the 78 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:40.639 global imagination, but in fact it's not actually a single 79 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:46.000 unitary thing. There were three distinct generations of pirates within 80 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:50.199 the Golden Age. The first was in the sixteen sixties 81 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.839 and sixteen seventies. An emblematic figure here is Sir Henry Morgan, 82 00:04:56.680 --> 00:04:59.199 and in fact he stole so much silver from the 83 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:02.920 Spanish and took it to Jamaica that he was knighted. 84 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:07.040 He became Sir Henry Morgan and became Lieutenant governor of 85 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:09.720 this incipient slave colony. 86 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:14.319 Over time, piracy evolved, the motivations, targets, and even the 87 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:17.759 way pirates operated changed from one generation to the next. 88 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:22.560 The first generation of pirates were called buccaneers, which operated 89 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:26.279 primarily in the Caribbean during the mid seventeenth century. 90 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:31.000 And that word comes from a style of capturing, cooking, 91 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:35.920 and eating wild game on the various Caribbean islands on 92 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:39.560 something that the French called a bucan, and so they 93 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:43.480 became buccaneers because many of the early buccaneers lived this 94 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:46.199 kind of roving life from one island to another. 95 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:51.319 The buccaneers mainly targeted the Spanish Empire, stealing enormous wealth 96 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:54.399 from the Spanish crown and weakening Spain's grip on the 97 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:59.920 New World. England saw an opportunity, granting privateers legal cover 98 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:01.920 to attack Spanish vessels. 99 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:05.959 The second generation is where you see a change in 100 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:10.439 the attitude from above. This is the generation of the 101 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:14.879 sixteen nineties. There are two emblematic figures for this generation. 102 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:19.680 One is Henry Avery, who captured a part of the 103 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:24.279 treasure fleet of one of the rulers of India and 104 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:29.560 got away with a massive heist of jewels and wealth, 105 00:06:29.959 --> 00:06:34.040 and he was never caught, so Henry Avery became kind 106 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:34.879 of a folk hero. 107 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:39.160 Another key figure of this era was William Kidd, born 108 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:42.160 in Dundee, Scotland in sixteen fifty four. Kid made a 109 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:45.040 name for himself as a privateer in New York. In 110 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:47.680 sixteen ninety five, he got a royal commission to hunt 111 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:50.439 down pirates and enemy ships in the Indian Ocean as 112 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:52.759 part of England's plan to protect its trade routes. 113 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.759 But when he got there, far beyond the reach of 114 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:02.319 royal authority, he actually turned pirate himself, and this was 115 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:05.800 a very big embarrassment for some of his wealthy English 116 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:09.800 merchant backers. So he eventually was brought back to London 117 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:16.000 and in an act that symbolized the changing attitude of 118 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:21.480 the English government towards piracy, William Kidd was hanged. So 119 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:26.079 from now on, piracy is not going to be acceptable. 120 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:29.600 The reason for these changing attitudes about piracy, like most 121 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:31.240 things in history, was money. 122 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.160 In the late seventeenth century, one of the things that's 123 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.000 happening is that the Caribbean colonies of England and other 124 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:44.680 countries are producing massive amounts of sugar. The sugar is 125 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:49.879 emerging as a very important commodity in the economy of 126 00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:51.040 Atlantic capitalism. 127 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:54.959 By seventeen hundred, piracy had become a massive thorn in 128 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.240 the side of colonial powers like England, France, and Spain. 129 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:03.319 Pirate's targeted show the backbone of the colonial economy, driving 130 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:07.480 up security and insurance costs and causing disruptions so severe 131 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:11.120 that the losses outweighed the cost of competing with one another. 132 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.639 Faced with a shured threat, these powers found less incentive 133 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:17.720 to fight each other with privateers and instead unite it 134 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:21.439 against the common enemy, ushering in a new era of piracy. 135 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:26.519 So the third generation of pirates are active in the 136 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:30.800 seventeen teens and seventeen twenties, and what's especially important about 137 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:34.440 them is that there are no longer any wealthy people involved. 138 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:38.240 This is the proletariant phase. This is the phase in 139 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:45.159 which common sailors get control of an entire generation of plundering, 140 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:49.360 and this, of course fuels all of the imperial governments 141 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:52.399 to catch as many of these people as they can 142 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:55.759 and to hang them up in gibbets at the entrance 143 00:08:55.840 --> 00:09:01.639 of every harbor as a deliberate act of terror, meant 144 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:06.639 to send a message to common sailors. If you turn pirate, 145 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:10.039 we will hunt you down and we will kill you. 146 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:14.240 It was during this new proletarian, working class era of 147 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:17.279 piracy when pirates started to see their very existence as 148 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:20.840 a rebellion against the hierarchies of capital and began building 149 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:26.000 their own, more egalitarian system. Their ships became spaces of democracy, fairness, 150 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:29.799 and unity, directly challenging the systems they had escaped, and. 151 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.000 This is one of the things that they were known for, 152 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:35.200 and they were known for this in their own day. 153 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:38.440 In other words, the elites who are hunting them down 154 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:43.159 to kill them are going after them not only because 155 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:47.600 they disrupted the commerce which was so valuable to these 156 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:52.679 European imperial powers, but also because they posed a challenge 157 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:54.840 to the standard way of running a ship. 158 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:58.159 Life aboard a pirate ship existed in stark contrast to 159 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:00.720 other more common jobs at sea, like being in the 160 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:03.279 navy or sailing aboard a merchant vessel. 161 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:06.559 So that the Royal Navy, for example, was very far 162 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:12.600 from democratic. It was a violent, brutal, disciplinary regime. Similarly, 163 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:18.600 the merchant shipping industry captains had tremendously concentrated powers, and pirates, 164 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:24.159 in their democratic and egalitarian ways, posed real challenges to 165 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:27.320 those other ways of organizing maritime labor. 166 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:31.159 And the pirate's ability to not only imagine a better 167 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:34.000 world for themselves, but to actually try and build one 168 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:36.919 captured the imagination of the public as well. 169 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:40.519 So this is the last generation of the Golden Age. 170 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:47.120 It's dramatic. It was something that everybody wanted to read about. 171 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:51.440 Whenever the authorities captured a group of pirates, they would 172 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:55.919 be hangings that were public spectacles, but vast numbers of 173 00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:58.559 people would turn out, many of them to cheer the 174 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:01.840 pirates because they were working class heroes. 175 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:04.759 But in order to understand what makes the piracy of 176 00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:07.879 the eighteenth century so radical, first we have to understand 177 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:12.399 transatlantic trade and the burgeoning capitalism of the sixteenth century. 178 00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:16.360 This is the period in which England is leading the 179 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:20.440 way and moving out into the world, actually following Spain, 180 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:26.279 who had a great deal of success in extracting gold 181 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:29.759 and silver from the indigenous peoples and their lands in 182 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:33.000 the Americas. But along come the Dutch and the English. 183 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:36.120 They didn't find gold and silver, but they found something 184 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:40.279 even better. They found things like sugar and tobacco and 185 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:43.279 rice and these commodities that are going to be the 186 00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:45.200 lifeblood of the Atlantic economy. 187 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.919 A lot of historians say the most important machine to 188 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:52.600 the rise of capitalism is a steam engine, but Marcus 189 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:53.600 has a different theory. 190 00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:58.360 It's the tall ship, which is actually a piece of 191 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:03.720 technology that permitted Europe to conquer the rest of the 192 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:07.960 world and to create these vast bluewater empires. You know, 193 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:14.879 the maritime powers in the sixteenth seventeenth, eighteenth century occupy 194 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:19.200 only a tiny part of the Eurasian land mass on 195 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:22.679 the western end. But think about where those languages are 196 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:27.960 spoken today, English, French, Dutch, Spanish. These are global languages 197 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.320 and this reflects the power of those ships as instruments 198 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:33.799 of conquest. 199 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:36.320 And those ships can't sail around the world without the 200 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:39.279 labor of highly skilled and trained sailors who could handle 201 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:43.480 everything from navigation and rigging to carpentry. Their expertise kept 202 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:45.440 the ships running and the trade routes alive. 203 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:49.879 The ships don't sail by themselves. There's a labor issue here. 204 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:55.240 So in this context, the growth of these empires and 205 00:12:55.279 --> 00:13:01.840 the growth of capitalism as a system has several crucial components. 206 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:08.039 One of these is what Marks called primitive accumulation of capital, 207 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:11.559 by that meaning the separation of workers from their means 208 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:16.639 of subsistence. This happens through the enclosure movement in England. 209 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:21.000 It happens through the slave trade in West Africa, where 210 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:25.240 many millions of Africans, through war and other forms of dispossession, 211 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:29.200 are going to be separated from the land, loaded onto 212 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:32.720 slave ships, and carried to the Americas to build this 213 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:34.639 nascent plantation system. 214 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:39.039 Marcus explains that the plantation system central to global trade 215 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:42.840 networks was responsible for the largest plant accumulation of wealth 216 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:46.120 the world had ever seen. The system depended on the 217 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:51.000 exploitation of millions of enslaved Africans, funneling immense wealth into 218 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:54.440 the hands of a few. That wealth in turn financed 219 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:58.480 further colonial expansion and the growth of European industries. 220 00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:03.279 So we're talking talking about massive amounts of money to 221 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:08.000 be taken back to Europe plunder, but also the regular 222 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:12.840 profits of production for the world market the plantation system 223 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:15.720 produces for the world market. That's just the way it works. 224 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:19.759 By seventeen hundred. European empires had built vast wealth through 225 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:23.120 plundered resources and slave labor, but they were constantly at 226 00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:25.200 war with each other, competing for control. 227 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:27.840 There are a series of Anglo Dutch wars in the 228 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:31.240 seventeenth century, and in seventeen oh two there breaks out 229 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.519 was called the War of Spanish Succession, and a fair 230 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.279 amount of this war is about who will control the 231 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:38.559 slave trade. 232 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:42.519 This war, which lasted from seventeen oh two to seventeen thirteen, 233 00:14:42.799 --> 00:14:45.960 pulled in major European powers like France, Britain, and the 234 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:48.799 Dutch Republic, all vying for dominance. 235 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:52.960 And during that time, one of the ways that European 236 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:57.759 powers waged war against each other is through something called privateering, 237 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:02.320 and by that is meant a private merchant ship is 238 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:06.399 geared out as a vessel of war and then given 239 00:15:06.519 --> 00:15:11.039 a bill of mark by a king or his minions 240 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:15.320 to wage war on behalf of the king against the 241 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:20.759 king's enemies, so to attack Spanish ships if you're English, 242 00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:25.799 or even French ships. That is essentially legal piracy. 243 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:29.639 These privateers made a lot of money, but. 244 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:33.159 When the war comes to an end, two things happen 245 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:37.279 that are really important to understanding the rise of piracy. First, 246 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:41.960 all those privateers are demobilized. In other words, once there's peacetime, 247 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.360 the king can't give out these letters of mark there's 248 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:50.080 no legal piracy going on. And secondly, the big navies 249 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:55.639 of these European empires also demobilized, so thousands of sailors 250 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:59.440 are basically paid off. Sometimes actually they're builked of their wages, 251 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:02.919 but they leave the ships and the navies move from 252 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:06.559 much higher level of mobilization to a much lower level. 253 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:09.960 That left the port cities of the Atlantic. Teaming was 254 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.039 skilled unemployed sailors, and. 255 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.840 The ruling class responded to this labor surplus the way 256 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:16.639 it always does. 257 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:22.360 This army of the unemployed has very palpable impact on 258 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:26.840 the way sailors who do have jobs are treated. They 259 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:30.159 are treated much worse. They are treated more violently by 260 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:34.639 the captains. Their wages go down. Wartime wages for sailors 261 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:38.399 are pretty decent, but once there's this massive glut of labor, 262 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:41.960 the wages come way down to a third of the 263 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:47.600 level of wartime. The quality of food declines, the use 264 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:49.120 of the lash increases. 265 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:54.240 Thousands of seasoned sailors, many of them former privateers, were broke, 266 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:58.279 angry and out of options, so they did what they 267 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:01.440 knew best. They took to the sea. But this time 268 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:04.920 they weren't sailing under a king's banner. They were sailing 269 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:06.240 under the black flag. 270 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:10.440 Pirates in the third generation of the Golden Age were 271 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:15.720 just ordinary working sailors. They were not aristocrats who had 272 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:18.720 lost their honor and go out to sea to marry 273 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:22.880 the colonial governor's daughter. You know, it's nothing like that. 274 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:28.240 It's just ordinary working people whose lives are really difficult, 275 00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:31.400 especially in this period after the War of Spanish. 276 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:34.279 Succession, there were two primary ways a sailor could become 277 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:35.680 a pirate around this time. 278 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:38.640 The way that most people think that you become a 279 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:45.240 pirate is through mutiny. That you basically organize an opposition 280 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:50.119 within a ship a merchant ship almost always, and you 281 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:53.960 rise up and you capture the ship, you create your 282 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:59.240 own black flag, and you sail off toward the horizon 283 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:04.440 as a new pirate crew. But that's probably a relatively 284 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:08.359 small percentage of the people who become pirates. 285 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:12.200 More often, however, pirates didn't have to take over a ship. 286 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:15.839 They just had to capture one, and for mistreated navy 287 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:19.359 or merchant sailors this could be an opportunity, and. 288 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:23.200 When pirates captured a prize vessel, they would perform a 289 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:26.880 very interesting ritual. They would come on board, and they 290 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:31.319 wouldn't start plundering right away. They would call all the 291 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.359 sailors up on deck, the sailors of the captured ship. 292 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:38.759 They would bring the captain up on deck to face 293 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:40.319 those sailors. 294 00:18:40.599 --> 00:18:42.839 And then the pirates, all of whom used to be 295 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:45.720 common sailors like the ones aboard the captured ship, and 296 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.400 all of whom had been whipped, starved, and cheated out 297 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.279 of their wages by merchant or navy. Captains would ask 298 00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:54.759 a question that would change the fate of everyone on board. 299 00:18:55.160 --> 00:18:56.759 How does your captain treat you? 300 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:02.559 And if they say, our captain treats us very badly. 301 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:08.839 He doesn't pay us our proper wages, he doesn't give 302 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:12.400 us the food we're supposed to get, and worst of all, 303 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:17.039 he beats us all the time. If sailors step forward 304 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:20.319 and say that in that moment, when the pirates have 305 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:24.039 just captured their ship, that captain is in a lot 306 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:29.920 of trouble. Because pirates will act as avengers for their 307 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:35.559 seafaring brothers, and they will give that captain a whipping, 308 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:38.960 usually in the very place where he would tie up 309 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:42.559 sailors to whip them. That tie him up in the 310 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.279 same place and give him the beating of his life, 311 00:19:45.319 --> 00:19:49.319 and in some instances they killed him. In some instances 312 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.279 they gave the captain a whipping and then threw him 313 00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:55.200 overboard and especially bad cases. 314 00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:58.200 But the pirates weren't just out for vengeance. They had 315 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:00.799 a system, a rough kind of justice. 316 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:04.160 If a sailor should step forward and said, our captain 317 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:08.359 is a decent man. He treats us well, he pays 318 00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:12.240 us our wages. In that case, the pirates would not 319 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:17.039 only not punish the captain, they might give him money. 320 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.400 One famous example of this was William Snellgrave, a merchant 321 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:24.759 captain captured by pirates in seventeen nineteen off the coast 322 00:20:24.759 --> 00:20:28.480 of Sierra Leone. Despite being severely injured in the attack, 323 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:32.200 he was spared, likely because his crew respected. 324 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:35.039 Him, and the pirates gave him money and said, go 325 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:38.960 home to London and show the merchants what happens when 326 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:44.079 a captain treats his sailors well. So they would reward 327 00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:47.640 the decent captains, and they would punish the much more 328 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:50.720 numerous violent captains. 329 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:53.799 And once the captain's fate was decided, the Pirates turned 330 00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:55.759 to the rest of the crew with another offer. 331 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:59.599 The pirates when they're getting ready to depart the prize ship, 332 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:04.000 they said, okay, boys, who's with us? Do you want 333 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:06.359 to come on board and join the pirate ship? And 334 00:21:06.519 --> 00:21:10.160 believe me, if you spoke out a bit against your captain, 335 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:13.480 you had better go with the pirates because there was 336 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:16.359 going to be trouble if you didn't. So this is 337 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:21.000 the way they recruited people by doing things in defense 338 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:24.759 of the common sailor, and also in telling them, look, 339 00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:27.640 you're going to join a ship where we vote on everything. 340 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:31.079 We're going to elect our captain, We're going to elect 341 00:21:31.079 --> 00:21:33.400 a quartermaster to keep an eye on the captain to 342 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:36.400 make sure he treats everybody fairly, and we're going to 343 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:40.039 divide up everything we get very equally. It's not going 344 00:21:40.119 --> 00:21:41.960 to be the way it is on these naval and 345 00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:42.960 merchant ships. 346 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:46.160 From that moment on, the pirates and whoever chose to 347 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:48.559 join them would sail off into the sunset and the 348 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:50.480 open sea out there. 349 00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:53.799 No captains or merchants had any power over them. They 350 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:56.160 were miles away, not only from the authority of their 351 00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:59.759 former employers, but also from the institutions that reproduce the 352 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:03.799 has seen social order churches, governments, families, et cetera. 353 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:06.839 They were free to create a new order, one that 354 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:08.440 worked on their own terms. 355 00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:12.720 They just get to decide for themselves how they want 356 00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:17.039 to run the ship, what do they do, how do 357 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:18.960 they do it. Do they do it in the same 358 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:24.480 way as the Royal Navy and the merchant shipping industry, 359 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:29.039 And the answer resoundingly is no, they didn't do it 360 00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:32.839 that way. They created a very different kind of social order. 361 00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:35.640 Of course, some things had to say the same. 362 00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:38.920 As ship still needed someone who could read charts, navigate 363 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:40.599 the seas, and keep them on course. 364 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:42.920 You've got to have that. If you don't have that, 365 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:47.559 the ship doesn't work properly. So you've got to choose 366 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:52.039 someone who has those skills. But even so, the pirates 367 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:56.200 would elect the person they wanted to lead them. Okay, 368 00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:59.200 so now this is at a time Bear in mind, 369 00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:03.599 this is at a time when poor people like sailors 370 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:08.920 had no democratic rights anywhere in the world. Okay, nowhere 371 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:13.119 did they have this kind of power. Because in most 372 00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:17.160 every country, if there is some voting. It's for people 373 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:20.759 of property, and these pirates didn't have property, so they 374 00:23:20.759 --> 00:23:25.079 couldn't vote. So they vote, so they vot. They vote 375 00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:25.680 for a captain. 376 00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:29.279 But even the best captains could abuse their power, so 377 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:31.240 the pirates built in a safeguard. 378 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:36.640 They created a new position called the quartermaster, who would 379 00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:40.119 basically do two things. One keep an eye on the captain, 380 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:43.920 make sure he doesn't abuse his power, and two divide 381 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:48.880 up everything equally that they take when they capture prize vessels. 382 00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:52.599 And what's fascinating about this is that for that job, 383 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:58.680 you're going to elect the most trustworthy person on the ship. 384 00:23:59.319 --> 00:24:01.839 It's the person you would trust to be fair to 385 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:04.880 everybody and the person that you would trust to be 386 00:24:05.079 --> 00:24:10.720 suspicious of captains. So they voted on that. So it's 387 00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:14.880 like a dual executive in which there's this balance of 388 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:17.559 power so that people are not abused. 389 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:21.920 And they didn't stop there. Pirates elected officers for all 390 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:22.799 sorts of roles. 391 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:25.799 In fact, they voted on just about everything. 392 00:24:26.359 --> 00:24:30.640 One ship captain said, it's who was totally unaccustomed to this. 393 00:24:30.759 --> 00:24:34.039 He says, they're just constantly voting on everything. Where do 394 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:36.319 we want to sail the ship, where's the best place 395 00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:38.640 to capture vessels? Who do we want to do this? 396 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.559 Who do we want to do that? And the sovereign 397 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:46.480 power was the crew as a collective. They had something 398 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:49.640 called the Common Council, in which everybody had to vote. 399 00:24:49.799 --> 00:24:53.079 Everybody came out, they had debates. You know, some said 400 00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:54.880 let's go here, or they said let's go there, and 401 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:57.599