THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY THE COMPLEXITY OF PIRACY: A CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF ENGLISH AND BRITISH PIRACY 1588-1723 ZOE COLE SPRING 2020 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a baccalaureate degree in history and philosophy with honors in history Reviewed and approved* by the following: Christina Snyder McCabe Greer Professor of History Thesis Supervisor Cathleen Cahill Associate Professor of History Honors Adviser * Electronic approvals are on file. i ABSTRACT British pirates in the Golden Age engendered out of the socioeconomic climate developed in seventeenth century England and later codified in eighteenth century Great Britain.1 The conclusion of the Anglo-Spanish war in 1603 fostered twin hegemonies that structured the development of England in the seventeenth century. Trade became an integral arm of English supremacy and statehood. Merchants commanded the English socioeconomic climate, and expanded England’s colonial reach. Consequent to their desire to maximize their power, English merchant and naval captains exploited shipmates for the perpetuation of capital dominance. British sailors violently reacted to their oppression by creating political system, founded in egalitarian and communist ideals, that directly opposed merchant supremacy on the seas. The second hegemony was Protestantism. Protestantism developed contingent to anti-Catholicism and buoyed the stability of Protestantism and English personhood. At the time of the Union of 1707, Anti-Catholicism and trade crystallized as a unified identity that furthered British supremacy. In this mist of this complex development, pirates employed Jacobite rhetoric that demystified the stability of Protestantism and illuminated anti-Catholic fears. In this context British pirates fundamentally confronted the perpetuation of British supremacy in both their active attack against merchant ships and the British social and cultural structure. Their common damnation of their Crown and use of Jacobitism further develops our understanding of their intentions. They are an important and integral aspect to understanding the developments of the Atlantic World and the establishment of the British Empire. 1 In 1707 the countries of British isles became amalgamated into Great Britain with the Union of 1707. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... v Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 The Creation of a Modern State .................................................................. 9 Eye of the World .............................................................................................................. 10 The Name of Popery ........................................................................................................ 15 The Character of Englishness ........................................................................................... 22 The Scourge of Pirates ..................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 3 Piracy in the Golden Age ............................................................................ 34 They Had Better be Dead Than Live in Misery ............................................................... 34 Revenge on Those Dogs................................................................................................... 43 As Traitors and Pirates ..................................................................................................... 49 They Would Rather Almost Starve Then Work ............................................................... 56 Pirate Republics of the Bahamas and Jamaica ................................................................. 62 Chapter 4 The British Reaction .................................................................................... 71 Enemies to All Man Kind ................................................................................................ 72 Chapter 5 The Complexity of Piracy ........................................................................... 77 Appendix A Section Sources ...................................................................................... 81 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 82 iii LIST OF FIGUES Figure 1 Capitan Coram ........................................................................................................... 23 Figure 2 Bahamas National Seal .............................................................................................. 70 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is to my parents who have supported me during the extent of my academic experience, Dr. Snyder, who has helped me find my passion for Atlantic history, Dr. Daniel Beaver who gave me important insight into the historical development of the early British state, Dr. Cahill for her guidance throughout this process, and my roommates who were patient enough to hear my talk about pirates for the past two years. 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Around seven o’clock at night on April 1st 1719, merchant captain William Snelgrave sat eating dinner with his officers, when the officer on watch sent word to Snelgave because he heard “the rowing of boat,” Snelgave went up to the deck to see who was coming upon their boat. Captain Snelgave called out to the small paddle boat for an answer. At first the men in the boat, numbering twelve, responded that they were friends with a captain from Barbados. Unsure of how to take this information, Snelgave ordered twenty of his men to come up to the deck, armed. Snelgave hailed the boat the again and this time the unknown men answered, “America,” and simultaneously fired a volley of shots at the Captain. Unfortunately for Snelgrave, his crew never answered his call to arms. His ship was boarded with no resistance and was subsequently captured by pirate captain Thomas Cocklyn and his crew from the Rising Sun at the mouth of the Sierra Leone River. That night, Cocklyn’s crew drank and feasted on the goods Snelgrave was enroute to disperse. The pirate crew drank to, not only the health of Captain Snelgrave, but also, “that of the Pretender, by the name of King James the Third.”2 So why were pirate crew’s like Cocklyn’s using Jacobite rhetoric? While not a wholly collective movement, it was intentional political action. Only recently have historians seriously contemplated piracy as integral to understanding the social context of the British Isles and the Atlantic world. Of those, E.T. Fox, Joseph Baer, and Steven Hahn are the few who critically 2 William Snelgrave, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave Trade 1734, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, accessed November 13, 2018, https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/eighteenth-century- collections-online 2 recognize the intersection of Jacobitism and piracy. Notable pirate historian Marcus Rediker denotes the use of Jacobitism by pirates only nominally. Arne Bialuschewski, in “Jacobite Pirates?” brushes off the connection to Jacobitism and piracy itself as a “self-justifying façade behind which pirate gangs increasingly alienated themselves from mainstream society.”3 In contrast, other scholars over idealize and glorify pirates in The Golden Age. Talissa J. Ford’s analysis in Radical Romantics oversimplifies pirate Edward Teach’s (infamously known as Blackbeard) actions as revolutionary and tolerant supporting her arguments with Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of Pyrates, which other scholars have described as being more fictious than accurate.4 Ford reveals to readers, and myself, that, “many historians now believe [Teach] was a mulatto,” despite not citing supplemental evidence to support this claim.5 Ford also overlooks Teach’s actions in Johnson’s account that complicate her analysis.6 These problems stem from her background as an English professor and not a historian, despite her essay reading as if it was a monograph of historical critique. Considering these flaws I want to make clear the critical aim of my discussion: I am not idealizing or trying to find the exact motivations of specific British pirates. Moreover, I am not attempting to argue pirates ontologically resisted the English social and political hierarchy. Rather their actions, recorded by the English elite, were in opposition to the English royal and merchant class, and sailors turned to piracy because of thier problematic system. Put concisely 3 Arne Bialuschewski. “Jacobite Pirates?” Histoire Sociale/Social History 44, no. 1 (August 26, 2011): 147–64. https://doi.org/10.1353/his.2011.0002. 4 “The Tryals of all the Pyrates, Lately Taken by Capitan Ogle” Vol 3. Ed. Joseph Baer British Piracy in the Golden Age History and Interpretation (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2006) 334 67 5 Talissa J. Ford, "It is Not Amiss to Speak of His Bread" in Radical Romantics. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) 21 6 Johnson writes how Teach, reportedly had his fourteenth wife, whom he just marred and was sixteen years old, raped by, “five or six of his brutal Companions.” Charles Johnson’s General History of the Pyrates, 1724, The Gutenberg Project 70-91, www.gutenberg.org/files/40580/40580-h/40580-h.htm