Golden Age of Piracy

“The rebel pulled the trigger, and like lightning, i saw the spark of fire that came from the muzzle” In this simile Ishmael explains how fast the rebel pulled the trigger and how quick a bullet can really go.

The Queen Anne’s revenge was a ship that belonged to the British royal navy in 1710. It was then captured a year later by the French. The French renamed the ship to La Concorde and mainly used the ship to transport slaves. The Queen Ann’s revenge did not gets its name till it was captured by Blackbeard the pirate in 1717. It was around the 1700s when Blackbeard the pirate began to terrorize the seas near the coast of North Carolina. He is considered one of the most notorious pirates that operated along the shipping coast of North America as well as the Caribbean. He is known for using his ship as a blockade in the port of Charleston. The blockade was implemented to take the supplies of the town. His rampage ended after crashing his ship into

Under The Black Flag , a book written by David Cordingly expressed the reality and myths behind piracy. He clearly states in the introduction of the book that his aim “is to examine the popular image of pirates today, to find out where this image came from, and to compare it with the real world of the pirates” (Cordingly xiv). Along with his aim his thesis is also stated in the introduction of his book, which essentially states that the views by everyday people of pirates consists of a mixture of facts, and many other things such as romantic novels and films. He successfully informs readers of the history behind many important misconceptions of common beliefs. Although some of the things every person has learned about a pirate growing up may

Marcus Rediker’s main point is the Atlantic Pirates were a group of highly intelligent people that unfortunately were forced to a criminal life because it was their only means to Survive. They were intelligent in the reason of choosing to attack the America colonies, but also in the way the pirates made their own governing structure. According to Dr. Rediker “a compact drawn up at the beginning of a voyage or upon election of a new captain, and agreed to by the crew. By these articles crews allocated authority, distributed plunder, and enforced discipline. These arrangements made the captain the creature of his crew”.(Rediker 209). These pirates knew that they had recently escaped a system of oppression that had done them wrong in many ways. This is why they made a system where everyone counted and where everyone got what they deserved. In a way they kept each other on check. An example of this today would be friend making sure another friend doesn’t cheat on his

Edward Teach, who was most commonly known as Blackbeard, was one of the most devilish and most notorious pirate ever known. Teach was only a pirate for about two years, but he still got the label. It wasn't just his travels or treasure that made him one of the most famous pirates, but his looks played a huge part. Blackbeard's few adventures, and crazy punishments are just a few things that made him the infamous Blackbeard historians know today.

In the morning, Blackbeard didn’t attempt to escape but instead waited for the Navy to make the first move towards him. His crew was puzzled at why he just waited at the wheel but then he ordered them to set sail. Blackbeard led the ship into a small channel that was between the sore and a hidden sandbar. When the two Navy sloops followed the pirates, they both became stuck on the sandbar. The pirates then began to blast the sloops with cannons, destroying one sloop and leaving the other one damaged. However, Blackbeard also became stuck on a sandbar, moments later. Caption Maynard was on the damaged ship and ordered that his men throw off some items to make the ship lighter. After his plan worked and the ship became free, Maynard and his crew

When the word pirate is mentioned, many people think of ship carrying men across the seas as they pillage other ships. While this is true to some extent there was much more to the lives of the men that were known as pirates. Pirates were mostly men from French, English or Dutch heritage, and were privateers or merchants. Many of these men were sanctioned by their government. By the Spanish they were call piratas or unsanctioned sea-raiders, and would have a heavy influence of trade in the Caribbean and on the Spanish Empire.

The Golden Age of Piracy Blackbeard, otherwise known as Edward Teach, was an English pirate around the early 18th century. He ransacked ships with his crew off the eastern coast of North Carolina from the summer of 1717 to November 1718. North Carolina was almost a sanctuary for pirates and other unfavorable people, and it had a coastline advantageous to the pirating of ships. Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, was possibly discovered recently in 2008, which provides much information on how he operated. Blackbeard turned to piracy in 1716, following in the footsteps of the pirate Benjamin Hornigold.

The Barbary States were states that were found in North Africa. The used piracy to get weaker Atlantic powers to pay them a tribute. The United States fought against Tripoli and Algiers. But sometimes the United States payed tribute for some of their soldiers to come back. The practice of state-supported piracy was not unusual in Europe. Lots of European countries used privateers to attack other countries ships and also participated in transiatlantic slave trade. Great Britain and France thought it was expedient to pay tribute to the Barbary states to keep their merchants safe and also so they could trade with Mediterranean places.

The brand of justice pirates toward vessels they captured was something I found fascinating. For example, on page 88, the incident involving the capture of Captain Snelgraves vessel by the pirate Thomas Cocklyn. Initially Snelgrave resisted Cocklyns takeover so as Cocklyns crew overpowers Snelgraves and is taken by the pirates. Certain that Snelgrave will be killed or beaten for resisting, Snelgraves crew comes to their captains defense thus Cocklyn sparring the respected captains life. Because of the degree of respect Snelgraves had, Cocklyn not often seeing a government captain holding such admiration from a crew offered him a new ship and profits from a captured slave ship for his return to England. This story really caught my attention because of the level of hospitality pirates show to a captain who held such respect with his own crew.

Buried treasure, eye patches, and walking the plank are all words and phrases that often appear in stories involving pirates. Tales about the voyages of pirates are often adventurous and riveting ones. It is very awe-inspiring to think about the daring lives those pirates once led. However, it might not be safe to assume that these stories are close to the truth or even based on genuine facts. In 1881 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a book entitled Treasure Island, which in return would forever change the way people looked at the term "pirate." Due to this book there are several different movies that have been created to interpret the term pirate in different ways. Black Pirate, The Dancing Pirate, Sea Hawk, and Captain Blood include some

Historical fiction is undoubtedly one of the most interesting literary genres out there. Two paragons of this genre are The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Both novels take place in the 20th century, decades between each other, and in separate continents both facing war and death. The Book Thief, published in 2006, takes place in 1940’s Germany, during the Second World War.

During the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, piracy was rampant in the Atlantic, specifically in the West Indies. Piracy has existed since the earliest days of ocean travel, for a range of personal and economic reasons. However, one of the major reasons why piracy was wide spread and rampant in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries was Great Britain’s endorsement and usage of piracy as an asset; in wars fought in the New World. Great Britain with its expanding power and conflicts with other nations would make piracy a lifestyle and lay down the foundation for the Golden Age of Piracy and eventually bring what it created to a screeching halt.

Have you ever watched the movie Pirates of the Caribbean? If you have you may or may not think that’s how the life of a pirate was in the 1700s. This is necessarily true though. I believe that the life of a pirate is not as glamorous as Hollywood portrays it.

Ambitions are an integral aspect of human culture. They motivate us in a ceaseless pursuit of constant success. However, humans are truly not contempt with their successes, and perpetually dream for more success in a never-ending spiral of greed. Jay Gatsby’s character throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, is an ideal epitome of human greed, or as we can refer to it, the American dream. Fitzgerald is able to foster a culture within the novel where dreams seem unreachable, despite the amount of hunger, or greed, one may possess in aim of fulfilling their desires. A sense of elitism is also present within the novel as Fitzgerald ably crafts astounding discrepancies within the social structure of the era fondly