WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:02.759 Welcome back to part two of our double episode on 2 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.160 the Golden Age of piracy. If you haven't listened to 3 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:07.320 part one yet, then I recommend you go back and 4 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:08.279 listen to that first. 5 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:24.239 Ala Matina penal Oh, bela child, bela child, Bela Chichi 6 00:00:24.839 --> 00:00:26.839 Chi Lamatino. 7 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:36.240 Before we get started, just a reminder that our podcast 8 00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:38.200 is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. 9 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.520 Our supporters fund our work and in return, get exclusive 10 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:45.240 early access to podcast episodes without ads, bonus episodes, free 11 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:47.240 and discounted merchandise, and other content. 12 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:50.079 Learn more and sign up at patreon dot com slash 13 00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:52.399 working Class history link in the show notes. 14 00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:55.399 Last episode, we looked at the world that gave rise 15 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:59.320 to the Golden Age of piracy, brutal working conditions, exploitation, 16 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:02.039 and the same who chose to fight back by creating 17 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:03.640 a new social order at sea. 18 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.840 They took to the open seas, far away from authority 19 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:09.920 of any kind, declaring war on the world They came from. 20 00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:18.079 Pirates depended on the great expanses of waters and seas 21 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:22.599 oceans because they were very hard for the navies of 22 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:23.799 the world to police. 23 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:26.480 But when the whole world is against you, where do 24 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:26.840 you go? 25 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:29.640 Because you can't stay at sea forever. You have to 26 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:32.040 go ashore. You have to get food, you have to 27 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:34.519 get the barnacle scraped off the side of the vessel. 28 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:36.840 You need to have a place you can go. 29 00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:39.280 Though the imperial powers of the day had their grip 30 00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:41.359 on much of the world, there were some places where 31 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:43.760 they were weak and their resources were stretched. Then. 32 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:48.879 For example, on some of the smaller Caribbean islands and 33 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:55.280 lesser ports in Cuba or Puerto Rico or Sandamang, some 34 00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:58.040 of the bigger islands of the Caribbean, there were small ports. 35 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.640 And the reason these ports were attractive was because there 36 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:06.599 were usually petty merchants, you know, not the wealthy people 37 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:10.479 who you know, were attached to the to the British government, 38 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:14.280 but petty merchants who would be very glad to get 39 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.680 the pirates' prizes, and they would let them have it 40 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:19.560 for a very cheap price. 41 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:23.120 Pirates established bases all along the Atlantic, on the coast 42 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.199 of North America, parts of West Africa, and especially the 43 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:29.680 Indian Ocean. Madagascar in particular, was one of the more 44 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:31.080 notorious pirate haunts. 45 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:34.759 In the Bahamas, a pirate stronghold called the Republic of 46 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:38.800 Pirates was established from roughly seventeen oh six to seventeen eighteen. 47 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:43.520 It was a self governed, anarchistic pirate utopia where famous 48 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:47.080 pirates like Blackbeard and Anne Bonnie operated outside of imperial 49 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:48.919 rule and traditional hierarchies. 50 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:52.319 The republic was a base from where pirates could raid 51 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:54.240 merchant ships and disrupt trade. 52 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:58.400 In places like these, pirates established trading networks with merchants 53 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:01.719 who had no loyalty to any empire, just a willingness 54 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:02.479 to do business. 55 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:06.319 And of course, pirates also had popular followings in these 56 00:03:06.360 --> 00:03:09.759 smaller ports because they would come ashore flush with money 57 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:12.479 and they were going to spend it and give it away, 58 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:17.000 and they would sometimes free enslaved people and free indentured servants, 59 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.360 and they would come back to the ship with them. 60 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.599 Most people love to see a pirate ship roll into town. 61 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:26.639 For many Amantipaida, a party or even a shot at 62 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:27.400 a new life. 63 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:32.000 I've argued these pirate ships are like floating maroon communities, 64 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.240 you know, the maroon communities made up of people who 65 00:03:36.360 --> 00:03:39.800 escaped the plantation system and move, for example, into the 66 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:44.240 Blue Mountains of Jamaica or some other inaccessible place where 67 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:49.039 they can build These very different social worlds separate from 68 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:49.719 the plantation. 69 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.719 Marcus describes pirate ships as a kind of autonomous zone 70 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:57.039 outside the reach of kings and empires, operating on their 71 00:03:57.039 --> 00:03:57.719 own rules. 72 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:01.680 It's a place where the people who are essentially refugees 73 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:06.479 of the capitalist shipping industry can build their own world 74 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:12.000 in ways like maroons could do on land, in forests, 75 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:15.479 on mountains, and the sea is a very similar kind 76 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:16.000 of place. 77 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:18.920 Not to mention, the kinds of sailors who ended up 78 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:21.480 becoming pirates were often the most skilled ones. 79 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:24.759 And you know, once they're in control of those ships, 80 00:04:25.079 --> 00:04:28.240 they can sail them better than anybody else. It's very 81 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:33.360 hard to capture them, so their skill is also related 82 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:40.040 to their issue of freedom. But slowly the authorities do 83 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:46.040 kind of cut off their contacts in different landed societies 84 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:48.519 and makes it easier to capture them. 85 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:50.720 And the reason the authorities of the day put so 86 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:53.279 much effort into trying to capture pirates was that in 87 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:56.600 building a more egalitarian society for themselves, they post a 88 00:04:56.680 --> 00:04:58.920 legitimate threat to the status quo. 89 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:03.800 The pirates of the third generation seventeen teens in seventeen 90 00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:10.519 twenties captured thousands of merchant ships. This created a massive 91 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:17.560 crisis in this very lucrative world of global trade. 92 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:21.600 Marcus says in the seventeen teens. In seventeen twenties, maritime 93 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:23.279 insurance rates skyrocketed. 94 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:27.360 In some cases, insurance rates doubled or even tripled, and. 95 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:30.680 In places like the Caribbean and West Africa, insurance rates 96 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:33.040 could be as high as fifteen to thirty percent of 97 00:05:33.079 --> 00:05:34.560 a ship's total value. 98 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:38.720 And that reflected the power of pirates directly, that they 99 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:42.439 were capturing so many ships. It was so dangerous that 100 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:46.360 these insurance houses in the metropolis in London and Paris, 101 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:49.279 wherever they were, they were very keenly aware of it, 102 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:52.439 and they were very worried about all the risks. So 103 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:56.040 there is a major disruption of the capitalist trading system. 104 00:05:56.560 --> 00:06:01.000 Unlike financial crises caused by capitalism's own contradiction, this was 105 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:02.199 something else entirely. 106 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:05.839 This is a human creation. In other words, this is 107 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:09.079 not one of those crises of overproduction or you know, 108 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:12.319 the things that are irrational in the way that capitalism works. 109 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:17.800 This is poor people banding together and fighting back and 110 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:22.959 creating massive problems for the architects of the world economy. 111 00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:27.199 And as you would expect, they come down with great 112 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:30.879 violence on the heads of these people who are disrupting 113 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:34.319 their sources of income and profits. 114 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:37.920 Pirates not only threatened the global economy, but a way 115 00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:40.920 of living that was the exact opposite of their formally 116 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:43.319 oppressive existence on navy and merchant. 117 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.720 Vessels, and they defied the social hierarchies of the day, 118 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.680 fully aware that their decision to turn pirate would come 119 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.439 with consequences. 120 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:54.759 But they didn't care. Freedom was more important to them. 121 00:06:55.120 --> 00:07:00.639 These common sailors, most of whom will never know, make 122 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:04.160 this decision to cross the line to become pirates. They 123 00:07:04.279 --> 00:07:08.240 live very well. For as long as they live. They 124 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:11.920 feast all the time, they drink, elect their own leaders. 125 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:15.319 They divide up everything equally. Many of them know that 126 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:18.399 they're going to die. And this is another thing, you know, 127 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:23.160 this Jolly Roger. There's a sense of humor among the pirates, 128 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:26.959 which is really it's gallows humor. They know they're going 129 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:29.040 to die as long as they stick with it, and 130 00:07:29.079 --> 00:07:30.639 most of them stick with it till the end. 131 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:33.439 In Marcus's book, he talks at length about the sense 132 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:35.879 of humor pirates had in light of this awareness that 133 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:37.879 their freedom would likely be short lived. 134 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:41.600 A group of pirates captured a ship that was carrying 135 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:47.120 proclamations of the king, these big bundles of you know, broadsides, 136 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:53.040 and oddly enough, the broadside was offering a forgiveness of 137 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:56.279 crimes to pirates who would come in and accept the 138 00:07:56.360 --> 00:08:00.000 king's pardon and then go straight join the royal navy 139 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:03.120 or do something like that. So the pirates have plundered 140 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:05.240 this ship and they say, give us, give us all 141 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:11.600 those proclamations, and the merchants, the merchant captain says, why 142 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:14.480 do you want those? And they say, we're in need 143 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.120 of toilet paper, and so they can't think of any 144 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:22.519 better way than to use the king's proclamation for that purpose, 145 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:27.160 so that there is that sense of humor. But again 146 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:31.959 this is an instance where ordinary working people create a 147 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:33.360 crisis of the world economy. 148 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.840 That rebellious spirit shaped everything about a life aboard a 149 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:42.360 pirate ship, including their infamous love of merriments. Music, dancing, sex, 150 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:45.679 and storytelling. Weren't just ways to pass time. They were 151 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:50.080 essential to morale. Reum flowed freely, and the crew lived 152 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:50.720 by their own. 153 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:55.240 Rules, and those rules extended beyond partying. Pirate ships have 154 00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:58.840 their own systems for survival, ones that prioritize fairness and 155 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:02.279 collective care, as we covered in Part one. Unlike merchant 156 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:05.960 or navy ships, where captains held unchecked power, pirate crews 157 00:09:06.039 --> 00:09:09.919 elected their leaders democratically. The loot capture during raids was 158 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:13.600 also divided equitably among the crew, regardless of their rank 159 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:14.799 or role on the ship. 160 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:17.639 A captain could be voted out at any time, and 161 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:21.039 the quartermaster made sure no one abused their authority, and 162 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:23.720 when pirates got injured, they weren't left behind. 163 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:26.879 There's even an argument to be made that pirates established 164 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:29.279 the first social security system. 165 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:33.200 In the popular imagination, pirates are often depicted with things 166 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.840 like eye patches, pig legs, and hooks for hands, and 167 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:40.799 that may not be entirely accurate, but Marcus says it 168 00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:42.879 does get to an essential truth. 169 00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:45.360 Being a sailor on any kind of vessel was a 170 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.279 dangerous line of work, and it often resulted in getting 171 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:49.200 aimed or killed. 172 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:53.399 Pirates accommodated for this. Many of their charters contain rules 173 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:55.639 that required the sailors to put a portion of all 174 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:57.639 plunder toward a common fund. 175 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:00.440 And that fund was used to provide for in or 176 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:01.519 disabled crewmates. 177 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:04.600 Even more than that, those who became disabled on the 178 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:08.399 job weren't discriminated against, and on a couple occasions even 179 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:09.840 rose to the rank of captain. 180 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:13.360 Maimed pirates were guaranteed food and drink, among other things 181 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:16.120 as part of this makeshift welfare system and a strong 182 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:18.320 sense of solidarity and mutual support. 183 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:22.080 One notable example of the determination pirates had to care 184 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:25.960 for one another comes in April seventeen seventeen, when Blackbeard 185 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.720 and his crew blockaded the city of Charleston until they 186 00:10:28.720 --> 00:10:31.480 were able to buy medical supplies necessary to treat their 187 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:32.240 sick and wounded. 188 00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:35.919 One South Carolinian wrote of this blockade, quote, the trade 189 00:10:35.960 --> 00:10:38.960 of this place was totally interrupted, and added that the 190 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:41.679 entire province was in quote a great terror. 191 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:45.159 In this way, the pirate's disruption of trade and the 192 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:48.200 global economy went beyond their desire to buck the system 193 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.000 and declare war on the whole world. 194 00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:53.519 Their disruption was often for the express purpose of what 195 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:55.559 people might now call mutual aid. 196 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:00.279 This culture of autonomous, democratic control over their own shipps, 197 00:11:00.360 --> 00:11:04.200 as well as their organization of their social hierarchy, arose 198 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:06.960 out of a long fought battle during the sixteen forties 199 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:10.720 and fifties, before the so called Golden Age of piracy. 200 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:13.840 You may remember from our first episode that prior to 201 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:17.440 this era of piracy, privateers and buccaneers laid the groundwork 202 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:20.399 for the more proletarian crews that made up the Golden Age. 203 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:23.960 As these mercenaries waged war against Spain on behalf of 204 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.039 the upper classes of England, France and the Netherlands, they 205 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:29.759 were also building their more egalitarian tradition. 206 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:33.080 At the time, it was known as the Jamaica discipline 207 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:36.559 or the law of privateers. It was considered the antithesis 208 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:39.200 of discipline and law, and was rooted in what Marcus 209 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:43.159 calls a distinctive conception of justice and a class hostility 210 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:46.080 to shipmasters, owners and gentlemen adventurers. 211 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:49.519 It was based on the democratic control of authority as 212 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:52.519 well as provision for the injured, and it was modeled 213 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:55.919 after a fictional peasant utopia called the Land of Cocaine, 214 00:11:56.200 --> 00:11:59.480 where work had been abolished and property redistributed. 215 00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:02.720 Jamika discipline was shaped by the harsh working conditions of 216 00:12:02.759 --> 00:12:04.759 the time and had a few basic tenets. 217 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:08.720 One a sense of justice that reimagined the brutal and 218 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:12.879 hierarchical systems of merchant and navy ships. Pirates wanted to 219 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:16.639 establish a more egalitarian and democratic order of things, as 220 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:19.039 evidenced by the way they voted on just about everything. 221 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:24.480 Two class hostility. Pirates were former sailors, working people from 222 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:27.480 the lower classes who had been exploited and mistreated all 223 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:32.240 their lives. Their code was explicitly antagonistic toward the ruling classes. 224 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:36.840 Three, as we've discussed, provisions for the injured and a 225 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:39.480 common fund to take care of pirates who had become 226 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:40.720 disabled on the job. 227 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:45.679 Four democratic controls on authority. As we mentioned in episode one, 228 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.759 captains and officers were elected by the crew. Their power 229 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:51.759 was limited. There were methods of removing captains who abused 230 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.480 their power, and most major decisions were put to a 231 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:57.960 vote outside of times of battle when quick thinking was essential. 232 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:01.879 Marcus says, these ordinary working people came from all sorts 233 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:03.080 of different backgrounds. 234 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:08.879 Pirate ships were motley cruz. This is a phrase that 235 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:12.559 I've used quite a bit in my work because it 236 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:19.159 captures both the multi ethnic and multi national nature of 237 00:13:19.159 --> 00:13:21.960 a lot of ships, not only pirate ships, merchant ships, 238 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:25.879 naval ships. I mean, the maritime labor market is international 239 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:28.919 from the fifteenth sixteenth century. You look at the people 240 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:32.519 who accompanied Columbus and Magellan, and there are Africans and 241 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:35.639 Italians and Greeks and all kinds of people. 242 00:13:36.120 --> 00:13:40.679 This multinational coalition of sailors also comprised people of African descent. 243 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:44.639 One major reason why that would be is that pirates 244 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:50.279 did not have racial criteria for joining their band. In 245 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:54.080 other words, what they wanted to know basically two things. 246 00:13:55.879 --> 00:14:02.559 Are you committed to the pirate enterprise? And two can 247 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:05.399 you fight? And if you answer yes to both of 248 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:10.360 those and believe me, a person who was an escape 249 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:14.600 ee from plantation society would be a very committed member 250 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:17.279 of your pirate crew given what they would have to 251 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:17.879 go back to. 252 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:21.799 Right, and many pirates of African descent played leading roles 253 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:23.720 aboard their ships, and. 254 00:14:23.639 --> 00:14:26.360 That's because quite a few of them we now know, 255 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:31.000 had military training back in Africa. This is very important. 256 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:33.480 So when you know how to fight, when you know 257 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.840 how to use a gun, when you have military discipline, 258 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:39.879 this is a very attractive thing for allowing people to 259 00:14:39.879 --> 00:14:43.679 come on board the ships. So that's also a leveling 260 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:45.279 sort of thing. 261 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.039 Pirate ships were one of the only places in the 262 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:50.840 Western hemisphere at the time that black men could attain 263 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:54.600 power and money. Many black pirates were escaped slaves, and 264 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:56.759 one of the most famous of these was a man 265 00:14:56.879 --> 00:14:59.879 known as Black Caesar. Legend has it that he was 266 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.960 an African chieftain who evaded capture by slavers multiple times 267 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:07.600 through his strength and cunning, but was eventually kidnapped. The 268 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:10.799 slave ship that was transporting him to the America's encountered 269 00:15:10.840 --> 00:15:13.480 a hurricane, and he and a friend escaped in a 270 00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:16.559 rowboat during the chaos. Black Caesar went on to raid 271 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:19.240 ships in the Florida Keys for almost a decade before 272 00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:20.519 joining Blackbeard's crew. 273 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:25.039 Now there are also women pirates, and this is crucial. 274 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:28.440 Now there aren't a lot of them, there are probably 275 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:31.440 quite a few more than we know, because there were 276 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:33.720 a lot of women in this period who dressed as 277 00:15:33.799 --> 00:15:37.080 men and went to sea or went to war. It 278 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:40.840 was very common. Two women who were very famous in 279 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:45.360 their own day, and Bonnie and Mary Reid were as 280 00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:50.679 tough and as good a fighter as any male sailor. 281 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:54.399 Marcus says at one point Bonnie and Reid actually ended 282 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:56.440 up on the same ship, and. 283 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:59.799 The story of how they were captured is interesting because 284 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:04.240 as often happened. A lot of the pirates seize their 285 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:10.080 freedom to get drunk, and so when a naval vessel 286 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:13.039 comes near, it turns out a lot of Anne and 287 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:16.440 Mary's shipmates are drunk, and so they run down into 288 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:19.200 the hold of the vessel to hide. Is if that's 289 00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:21.720 going to help them, And so Anne and Mary and 290 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:25.559 one other pirate they stay on the main deck. They're 291 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:28.559 firing the cannon and try to keep the naval vessel 292 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:34.480 away from them. They don't succeed. They're captured. They're all 293 00:16:34.519 --> 00:16:38.879 taken into Jamaica to be hanged. Anne and Mary are 294 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:40.679 not hanged because they're both. 295 00:16:40.519 --> 00:16:42.720 Pregnant, or at least they claimed to be. 296 00:16:43.279 --> 00:16:46.120 And British law at that time did not permit the 297 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:49.919 hanging of pregnant women. So at the gallows, and this 298 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:53.200 will give you a pretty good idea of Anne Bonnie's spirit. 299 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.960 At the gallows. Jack Rackham, her lover, who was the 300 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.159 captain of the vessel and who had gone down in 301 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:02.120 the hole to hide, is standing there with a rope 302 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:06.200 around his neck, and he looks at Anne and she's 303 00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:11.799 not giving him a sympathetic look, and Jack Calico Jack says, an, 304 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:16.359 don't look at me that way, and Anne was reported 305 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:19.960 to have said, Jack, if you had fought like a man, 306 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:24.119 you wouldn't now be hanged like a dog. So this 307 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:29.160 was Anne Bonnie's toughness. Mary Reid was every bit it's tough. 308 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:32.119 And though it was less common than their forward thinking 309 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:35.240 gender and racial attitudes, the pirate ship even allowed for 310 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:39.240 the kinds of sexual relationships that were prohibited amongst polite society. 311 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:43.160 It was just a freer place. And I find it 312 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:50.000 fascinating that even though in all other maritime enterprises sexual 313 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:56.039 contact between men is criminalized and ruthlessly punished, none of 314 00:17:56.119 --> 00:18:00.000 the articles for pirate ships mentioned this as an issue 315 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:02.880 at all. So we don't have a lot of evidence 316 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:05.079 about what happened on pirate ships, but we do know 317 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:08.440 that they were freer places in that regard, as in 318 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:10.119 almost all others. 319 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:13.680 But that freedom came with the price. The authorities of 320 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:16.319 the day did everything they could do not only capture 321 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:19.440 and execute pirates, but make examples out of them. 322 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:24.160 The government of England has long been, as my friend 323 00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:29.279 Peter Liinbach calls it a fanatocracy, that you rule people 324 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:34.680 by killing them, you rule people by public executions. So 325 00:18:35.839 --> 00:18:40.160 in every port city. Anytime a group of pirates were captured, 326 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:43.720 there would be a show trial, and there would be 327 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:50.000 a highly public spectacle of execution, because again they wanted 328 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:53.720 to send a message to common sailors who were joining 329 00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:54.880 these pirate ships. 330 00:18:55.440 --> 00:18:58.720 Around one in ten pirates met their fate at the gallows. 331 00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:01.759 The dead bodies of executed pirates were often left hanging 332 00:19:01.799 --> 00:19:05.279 outside of ports, rotting in the sun, a brutal warning 333 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:07.200 to anyone tempted to follow their path. 334 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:10.400 It sends the message this is what happens if you 335 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:12.119 defy the existing order. 336 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:14.160 Or if you get in the way of the ruling 337 00:19:14.200 --> 00:19:15.880 class accumulating more wealth. 338 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:19.519 But sometimes it didn't work out the way the authorities 339 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:23.599 wanted it to, because these pirates would seize the moment 340 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:27.720 of their own execution to continue their critique of the 341 00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:29.720 way they were treated as common sailors. 342 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.640 Many pirates face the gallows without fear. Some use their 343 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:36.519 final moments to call out the injustice that had driven 344 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:38.279 them to piracy in the first place. 345 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:41.759 One of the most famous examples was William Fly, a 346 00:19:41.799 --> 00:19:45.359 notorious pirate who approached his execution in seventeen twenty six 347 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:46.640 with complete disdain. 348 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:51.519 He's going to be hanged. The famous Puritan minister Cotton 349 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:54.480 Mather keeps talking to him, trying to get him to 350 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:57.680 convert right, to admit that what he had done was wrong, 351 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:01.559 and William Fly just completely refused. He's having none of it. 352 00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:04.519 He gets on the gallows and he makes a speech 353 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:07.319 in which he says to all the ship captains out 354 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:10.759 there in the audience, treat your sailors well, or this 355 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.559 is going to happen, right. And this guy Fly had 356 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:20.880 so much confidence in himself and his message. When he 357 00:20:20.920 --> 00:20:25.359 got up on the gallows and the hangman put the 358 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.799 note the noose around his neck, William Fly took it 359 00:20:28.839 --> 00:20:30.880 off and said, you don't even know how to tie 360 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:34.680 a proper noose, do you. And of course sailors who 361 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:38.119 worked with rope all the time at sea were experts 362 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:41.960 in tying knots. So his Fly actually retied the knot 363 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:45.119 that would go around his neck, just to show them 364 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:48.039 that he wasn't afraid. He was going to die game, 365 00:20:48.519 --> 00:20:52.039 and he was going to die cursing the powers that be. 366 00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:54.880 The pirates who pulled these kinds of stunts at the 367 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:57.960 gallows did so knowing full well that a large number 368 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:00.400 of people in the crowd were actually on their side. 369 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:06.400 That's why the authorities didn't just stage these public executions. 370 00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:11.759 They had large numbers of armed soldiers to prevent the 371 00:21:11.880 --> 00:21:15.640 crowd from rescuing people from the gallows, and that did 372 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:17.839 happen a couple of times. It happened once for sure 373 00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:22.599 in Jamaica, where a rowdy mob went and rescued the 374 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:24.160 pirate before he was hanged. 375 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:27.400 The pirates responded to the terror of the ruling class 376 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:27.960 in kind. 377 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:31.599 In the last episode, Marcus talked about how pirates used 378 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:34.039 the Jolly Roger to strike fear into the hearts of 379 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:35.119 their enemies. 380 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:39.400 But he also says many pirates use their senses of humor, absurdity, 381 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:42.079 and their flair for the dramatic to turn that fear 382 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:43.720 back on the ruling class. 383 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:50.440 Pirates understood the drama of social life, and one who 384 00:21:50.519 --> 00:21:53.480 understood it very well was a man named Edward Teach, 385 00:21:53.960 --> 00:22:00.440 also known as Blackbeard. He was a huge man, six 386 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:03.559 foot eight or six foot nine in the average in 387 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:06.119 the time when most people were about five foot six, 388 00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:11.240 and he would do things like when he went into battle, 389 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:15.680 he had this big long black Beard He would take 390 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:19.200 sparklers and put them in his beard and his hair 391 00:22:19.720 --> 00:22:22.359 and then set them on fire so that he had 392 00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:27.759 this satanic halo around his head, which was absolutely terrifying 393 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:31.559 to everybody, because you know, his idea was, you're afraid 394 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:35.920 of satanic imagery. Okay, I'm that I am your greatest nightmare. Right. 395 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:39.400 So he's he's playing this part right, and it's a 396 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:44.559 part meant to terrify, if not terrorize, your enemies. 397 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:48.319 Marcus says, this dynamic of terror, this back and forth, 398 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:51.200 is essential to understanding the Golden Age of piracy. 399 00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:53.759 But we do have to add one more terror to 400 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:58.319 this story, which is the terror that ship captains used 401 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:02.079