Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age

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Verso, 2004 - History - 240 pages
Villains of All Nations is a people's history of piracy--a history that emphasizes how common seamen who turned pirate built for themselves a multicultural, democratic and egalitarian society. This vivid social history of Atlantic piracy focuses on its colorful Golden Age, from 1716 to 1726, the age of the dreaded black flag, the Jolly Roger, as well as swashbuckling figures such as Edward Teach, better known, of course, as Blackbeard. These "outcasts of all nations" imagined--and succeeded in forging--a better world than they had found on the merchant and naval ships on which they had previously worked: they democratically elected their officers, divided their booty in egalitarian way, and fought against the common vicious abuse of sailors. The historical truth about what pirates actually did proves more compelling than the romantic fiction that has grown up around them.
 

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Contents

A Tale of Two Terrors
The Political Arithmetic of Piracy
15
Who Will Go a Pyrating?
34
The New Government of the Ship
56
To Do Justice to Sailors
79
The Women Pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read
99
To Extirpate Them Out of the World
123
Defiance of Death Itself
144
Blood and Gold
166
Notes
173
Acknowledgments
218
Index
222
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