Piracy in the Caribbean

Causes

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Pirates were often former sailors experienced in naval warfare. In the 16th century, pirate captains recruited seamen to loot European merchant ships, especially the Spanish treasure fleets sailing from the Caribbean to Europe. The following quote by an 18th-century Welsh captain shows the motivations for piracy:

In an honest Service, there is thin Commons, low Wages, and hard Labour; in this, Plenty and Satiety, Pleasure and Ease, Liberty and Power; and who would not balance Creditor on this Side, when all the Hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sower Look or two at choaking. No, a merry Life and a short one shall be my Motto.

—Pirate Captain Bartholomew Roberts^[6]

Piracy was sometimes given legal status by the colonial powers, especially France under King

To combat this constant danger, in the 1560s the Spanish adopted a convoy system. A treasure fleet or flota would sail annually from Seville (and later from Cádiz) in Spain, carrying passengers, troops, and European manufactured goods to the Spanish colonies of the New World. This cargo, though profitable, was really just a form of ballast for the fleet as its true purpose was to transport the year's worth of silver to Europe. The first stage in the journey was the transport of all that silver from the mines in Bolivia and New Spain in a mule convoy called the Silver Train to a major Spanish port, usually on the Isthmus of Panama or Veracruz in New Spain. The flota would meet up with the Silver Train, offload its cargo of manufactured goods to waiting colonial merchants and then load its holds with the precious cargo of gold and silver, in bullion or coin form. This made the returning Spanish treasure fleet a tempting target, although pirates were more likely to shadow the fleet to attack stragglers than to engage the well-armed main vessels. The classic route for the treasure fleet in the Caribbean was through the Lesser Antilles to the ports along the Spanish Main on the coast of Central America and New Spain, then northwards into the Yucatán Channel to catch the westerly winds back to Europe.^[9]

By the 1560s, the

The

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, the arrival of European diseases with Columbus had reduced the local Native American populations; the native population of New Spain fell as much as 90% from its original numbers in the 16th century.^[11] This loss of native population led Spain to increasingly rely on African slave labor to run Spanish America's colonies, plantations and mines and the trans-Atlantic slave trade offered new sources of profit for the many English, Dutch and French traders who could violate the Spanish mercantilist laws with impunity. But the relative emptiness of the Caribbean also made it an inviting place for England, France and the Netherlands to set up colonies of their own, especially as gold and silver became less important as commodities to be seized and were replaced by tobacco and sugar as cash crops that could make men very rich.

As Spain's military might in Europe weakened, the Spanish trading laws in the New World were violated with greater frequency by the merchants of other nations. The Spanish port on the island of Trinidad off the northern coast of South America, permanently settled only in 1592, became a major point of contact between all the nations with a presence in the Caribbean.

History

Early seventeenth century, 1600–1660

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Changes in demography

In the early 17th century, expensive fortifications and the size of the colonial garrisons at the major Spanish ports increased to deal with the enlarged presence of Spain's competitors in the Caribbean, but the treasure fleet's silver shipments and the number of Spanish-owned merchant ships operating in the region declined. Additional problems came from shortage of food supplies because of the lack of people to work farms. The number of European-born Spaniards in the New World or Spaniards of pure blood who had been born in New Spain, known as peninsulares and

At the same time, England and France were powers on the rise in 17th-century Europe as they mastered their own internal religious schisms between

) and Japan, and left the West Indies to smaller, more independent Dutch operators.

Spanish ports

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Part of a series on the
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In the early 17th century, the Spanish colonies of Cartagena, Havana, Panamá Viejo, Porto Bello, Santiago de Cuba, Santo Domingo, and San Juan were among the most important settlements of the Spanish West Indies.^[12] Each possessed a large population and a self-sustaining economy, and was well-protected by Spanish defenders. These Spanish settlements were generally unwilling to deal with traders from the other European states because of the strict enforcement of Spain's mercantilist laws pursued by the large Spanish garrisons. In these cities European manufactured goods could command premium prices for sale to the colonists, while the trade goods of the New World—tobacco, cocoa and other raw materials, were shipped back to Europe.

By 1600, Porto Bello had replaced Nombre de Dios (where Sir Francis Drake had first attacked a Spanish settlement) as the Isthmus of Panama's Caribbean port for the Spanish Silver Train and the annual treasure fleet. Veracruz, the only port city open to trans-Atlantic trade in New Spain, continued to serve the vast interior of New Spain as its window on the Caribbean. By the 17th century, the majority of the towns along the Spanish Main and in Central America had become self-sustaining. The smaller towns of the Main grew tobacco and also welcomed foreign smugglers who avoided the Spanish mercantilist laws. The underpopulated inland regions of Hispaniola and Venezuela were another area where tobacco smugglers in particular were welcome to ply their trade.

The Spanish-ruled island of Trinidad was already a wide-open port open to the ships and seamen of every nation in the region at the start of the 17th century, and was a particular favorite for smugglers who dealt in tobacco and European manufactured goods. Local Caribbean smugglers sold their tobacco or sugar for decent prices and then bought manufactured goods from the trans-Atlantic traders in large quantities to be dispersed among the colonists of the West Indies and the Spanish Main who were eager for a little touch of home. The Spanish governor of Trinidad, who both lacked strong harbor fortifications and possessed only a laughably small garrison of Spanish troops, could do little but take lucrative bribes from English, French and Dutch smugglers and look the other way—or risk being overthrown and replaced by his own people with a more pliable administrator.

Other ports

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The English had established an early colony known as

From 1630 to 1654, Dutch merchants had a port in Brazil known as Recife. It was initially founded by the Portuguese in 1548.^[14] The Dutch had decided in 1630 to invade several sugar producing cities in Portuguese-controlled Brazil, including Salvador and Natal. From 1630 to 1654, they took control of Recife and Olinda, making Recife the new capital of the territory of Dutch Brazil, renaming the city Mauritsstad. During this period, Mauritsstad became one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world. Unlike the Portuguese, the Dutch did not prohibit Judaism. The first Jewish community and the first synagogue in the Americas – Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue – was founded with the help of Moses Cohen Henriques in the city.^[15][16][17]

The Portuguese inhabitants fought on their own to expel the Dutch in 1654, being helped by the involvement of the Dutch in the First Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch fought for nine years, only surrendering when safe passage for the Jews was guaranteed by the Portuguese. This was known as the Insurreição Pernambucana (Pernambucan Insurrection). Most of the Jews fled to Amsterdam; others fled to North America, starting the first Jewish community of New Amsterdam (now known as New York City). The Dutch spent most of their time trading in smuggled goods with the smaller Spanish colonies. Trinidad was the unofficial home port for Dutch traders and privateers in the New World early in the 17th century before they established their own colonies in the region in the 1620s and 1630s. As usual, Trinidad's ineffective Spanish governor was helpless to stop the Dutch from using his port and instead he usually accepted their lucrative bribes.

European struggle

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The first third of the 17th century in the Caribbean was defined by the outbreak of the savage and destructive

In England, a new round of colonial ventures in the New World was fueled by declining economic opportunities at home and growing religious intolerance for more radical Protestants (like the Puritans) who rejected the compromise Protestant theology of the established Church of England. After the demise of the Saint Lucia and Grenada colonies soon after their establishment, and the near-extinction of the English settlement of Jamestown in Virginia, new and stronger colonies were established by the English in the first half of the 17th century, at Plymouth, Boston, Barbados, the West Indian islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Providence Island. These colonies would all persevere to become centers of English civilization in the New World.

For France, now ruled by the Bourbon King Louis XIII (r. 1610–1642) and his able minister Cardinal Richelieu, religious civil war had been reignited between French Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots). Throughout the 1620s, Huguenots fled France and founded colonies in the New World much like their English counterparts. Then, in 1636, to decrease the power of the Habsburg dynasty who ruled Spain and the Holy Roman Empire on France's eastern border, France entered the cataclysm in Germany—on the Protestants' side. The Franco-Spanish War continued until the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees.

Colonial disputes

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Many of the cities on the Spanish Main in the first third of the 17th century were self-sustaining but few had yet achieved any prosperity. The more backward settlements in Jamaica and Hispaniola were primarily places for ships to take on food and fresh water. Spanish Trinidad remained a popular smuggling port where European goods were plentiful and fairly cheap, and good prices were paid by its European merchants for tobacco.

The English colonies on Saint Kitts and Nevis, founded in 1623, would prove to become wealthy sugar-growing settlements in time. Another new English venture, the

On the shared Anglo-French island of Saint Christophe (called "Saint Kitts" by the English) the French had the upper hand. The French settlers on Saint Christophe were mostly Catholics, while the unsanctioned but growing French colonial presence in northwest Hispaniola (the future nation of Haiti) was largely made up of French Protestants who had settled there without Spain's permission to escape Catholic persecution back home. France cared little what happened to the troublesome Huguenots, but the colonization of western Hispaniola allowed the French to both rid themselves of their religious minority and strike a blow against Spain—an excellent bargain, from the French Crown's point of view. The ambitious Huguenots had also claimed the island of Tortuga off the northwest coast of Hispaniola and had established the settlement of Petit-Goâve on the island itself. Tortuga in particular was to become a pirate and privateer haven and was beloved of smugglers of all nationalities—after all, even the creation of the settlement had been illegal.

Dutch colonies in the Caribbean remained rare until the second third of the 17th century. Along with the traditional privateering anchorages in the Bahamas and Florida, the Dutch West India Company settled a "factory" (commercial town) at New Amsterdam on the North American mainland in 1626 and at Curaçao in 1634, an island positioned right in the center of the Caribbean off the northern coast of Venezuela that was perfectly positioned to become a major maritime crossroads.

Seventeenth century crisis and colonial repercussions

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By the later half of the 17th century, Barbados had become the unofficial capital of the English West Indies before this position was claimed by Jamaica later in the century. Barbados was a merchant's dream port in this period. European goods were freely available, the island's sugar crop sold for premium prices, and the island's English governor rarely sought to enforce any type of mercantilist regulations. The English colonies at Saint Kitts and Nevis were economically strong and now well-populated as the demand for sugar in Europe increasingly drove their plantation-based economies. The English had also expanded their dominion in the Caribbean and settled several new islands, including Bermuda in 1612, Antigua and Montserrat in 1632, and Eleuthera in the Bahamas in 1648, though these settlements began like all the others as relatively tiny communities that were not economically self-sufficient.

The French also founded major new colonies on the sugar-growing islands of Guadeloupe in 1634 and Martinique in 1635 in the Lesser Antilles. However, the heart of French activity in the Caribbean in the 17th century remained Tortuga, the fortified island haven off the coast of Hispaniola for privateers, buccaneers and outright pirates. The main French colony on the rest of Hispaniola remained the settlement of Petit-Goâve, which was the French toehold that would develop into the modern state of Haiti. French privateers still used the tent city anchorages in the Florida Keys to plunder the Spaniards' shipping in the Straits of Florida, as well as to raid the shipping that plied the sealanes off the northern coast of Cuba.

For the Dutch in the 17th century, the Caribbean island of Curaçao was the equivalent of England's port at Barbados. This large, rich, well-defended free port, open to the ships of all the European states, offered good prices for tobacco, sugar and cocoa that were re-exported to Europe and also sold large quantities of manufactured goods in return to the colonists of every nation in the New World. A second Dutch-controlled free port had also developed on the island of Sint Eustatius which was settled in 1636. The constant back-and-forth warfare between the Dutch and the English for possession of it in the 1660s later damaged the island's economy and desirability as a port. The Dutch also had set up a settlement on the island of Saint Martin which became another haven for Dutch sugar planters and their African slave labor. In 1648, the Dutch agreed to divide the prosperous island in half with the French.

Golden Age of Piracy, 1660–1726

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The late 17th and early 18th centuries (particularly between the years 1706 to 1726) are often considered the "Golden Age of Piracy" in the Caribbean, and pirate ports experienced rapid growth in the areas in and surrounding the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Furthermore, during this time period there were approximately 2400 men that were currently active pirates.

In the Caribbean, this political environment created many new threats for colonial governors. The sugar island of Sint Eustatius changed ownership ten times between 1664 and 1674 as the English and Dutch dueled for supremacy there. Consumed with the various wars in Europe, the mother countries provided few military reinforcements to their colonies, so the governors of the Caribbean increasingly made use of buccaneers as mercenaries and privateers to protect their territories or carry the fight to their country's enemies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these undisciplined and greedy dogs of war often proved difficult for their sponsors to control.

By the late 17th century, the great Spanish towns of the Caribbean had begun to prosper and Spain also began to make a slow, fitful recovery, but remained poorly defended militarily because of Spain's problems and so were sometimes easy prey for pirates and privateers. The English presence continued to expand in the Caribbean as England itself was rising toward great power status in Europe. Captured from Spain in 1655, the island of Jamaica had been taken over by England and its chief settlement of Port Royal had become a new English buccaneer haven in the midst of the Spanish Empire. Jamaica was slowly transformed, along with Saint Kitts, into the heart of the English presence in the Caribbean. At the same time the French Lesser Antilles colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique remained the main centers of French power in the Caribbean, as well as among the richest French possessions because of their increasingly profitable sugar plantations. The French also maintained privateering strongholds around western Hispaniola, at their traditional pirate port of Tortuga, and their Hispaniolan capital of Petit-Goâve. The French further expanded their settlements on the western half of Hispaniola and founded Léogâne and Port-de-Paix, even as sugar plantations became the primary industry for the French colonies of the Caribbean.

At the start of the 18th century, Europe remained riven by warfare and constant diplomatic intrigue. France was still the dominant power but now had to contend with a new rival, England (

.

End of an era

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The decline of piracy in the Caribbean paralleled the decline of the use of mercenaries and the rise of national armies in Europe. Following the end of the Thirty Years' War the direct power of the state in Europe expanded. Armies were systematized and brought under direct state control; the Western European states' navies were expanded and their mission was extended to cover combating piracy. The elimination of piracy from European waters expanded to the Caribbean beginning as early as 1600 with the expansion of standing Royal Naval vessels in the Caribbean, numbering 124 by 1718. Other colonial powers soon followed suit and by the beginning of the nineteenth century, France, Spain, and the United States had all stationed ships in the Caribbean.^[19][20]

Several European governments passed measures to attempt to combat piracy; in 1717, the

Despite the increasing crackdowns against Caribbean pirates, piracy in the region saw a brief resurgence between the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 and around 1720, as many unemployed seafarers took to piracy as a way to make ends meet when a surplus of sailors after the war led to a decline in wages and working conditions. At the same time, one of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht that ended the war gave to Great Britain's South Sea Company a thirty-year asiento, or contract, to furnish African slaves to the Spanish colonies, providing British merchants and smugglers potential inroads into the traditionally closed Spanish markets in America and leading to an economic revival for the whole region. This revived Caribbean trade provided rich new pickings for a new wave of piracy. Also contributing to the increase of Caribbean piracy at this time was Spain's breakup of the British logwood settlement at Campeche and the attractions of a freshly sunken Spanish treasure fleet carrying silver off the southern Bahamas in 1715.^{[citation needed]}

This last large resurgence of piracy saw a change in attitude of European colonial powers towards pirates. It had once been seen as a somewhat minor offense, only punishable if suspects and evidence were taken back to Europe for formal proceedings. Now, the British Parliament set the system of courts of Vice-Admiralty, appointing seven commissioners in the colonies to carry out the legal proceedings. These commissioners were chosen from naval and colonial officers who already contained a certain amount of bias towards the local pirates, instead of civilian judges. Pirates were given no representation in the new courts and were, therefore, often sentenced to hang. Between 1716 and 1726 approximately 400 to 600 pirates were executed.^[23] Another major attitude change was the policy that if one's ship was attacked by pirates, then one must fight back and attempt to resist to the capture of their ship lest they receive six months imprisonment.^[19]

With royal attitudes growing so harsh towards the pirates in the Caribbean, many fled to areas of the world where piracy may still be a profitable trade. Black Bart, Bartholomew Roberts, perhaps the most successful pirate that had sailed in the Caribbean, eventually returned to Africa in 1722.^[24] Other, less successful pirates from the golden age in the Caribbean attempted to flee North to the Americas. Stede Bonnet, an accomplice of Blackbeard, supposedly began to plunder ships along the Atlantic Coast, but was captured along the South Carolina coast in 1718.^[25]

This early 18th century resurgence of piracy lasted only until the presence of European navies and coast guards in the Caribbean were enlarged to deal with the threat. Also crucial to the end of this era of piracy was the loss of the pirates' last Caribbean safe haven at Nassau. The famous pirates of the early 18th century were a completely illegal remnant of a golden buccaneering age, and their choices were limited to quick retirement or eventual capture. Contrast this with the earlier example of Welshman Henry Morgan, who for his privateering efforts was knighted by the English Crown and appointed the lieutenant-governor of Jamaica.^[18]

In the early 19th century, piracy along the East and Gulf Coasts of North America as well as in the Caribbean increased again.

About the time of the Mexican–American War in 1846, the United States Navy had grown strong and numerous enough to eliminate the pirate threat in the West Indies. By the 1830s, ships had begun to convert to steam propulsion, so the Age of Sail and the classical idea of pirates in the Caribbean ended. Privateering, similar to piracy, continued as an asset in war for a few more decades and proved to be of some importance during the naval campaigns of the American Civil War.

Privateering would remain a tool of European states, and even of the newborn United States, until the mid-19th century's

Rules of piracy

Aboard a pirate vessel things were fairly democratic and there were "codes of conduct" that reflect modern laws.^{[citation needed]} Some of these rules consisted of a dress code, no women,^[26] and some ships had no smoking. The rules, the punishment for breaking them, and even the staying arrangements would be decided among everyone going on the ship before departure, which was a very abstract process compared to the strict rules and procedures onboard European warships and merchantmen. In further contrast to European colonial society in the Americas, on board a pirate vessel racial divisions were usually unknown and in some instances pirates of African descent served as ships' Captains.^[27] Another activity that had to be engaged in before the ship left the dock was swearing an oath to not betray anyone in the entire crew, and to sign what was known as the ship's Article,^[26] which would determine the percentage of profit each crew member would receive.^[2]

Furthermore, some of the ways for deciding disagreements among pirate crew members were fighting till first blood or in more serious cases abandoning an individual on an uninhabited island, whipping them 39 times, or even executing them by firearm. Despite popular belief, however, the punishment of "walking the plank" was never used to settle disputes among pirates. There was, however, a division of power on a pirate crew between the captain, the quartermaster, the governing council for the vessel, and the regular crewmen;^[2] but in battle the pirate captain always retained all power and ultimate decision-making authority to ensure an orderly chain of command.^[27] When it came time to split the captured wealth into shares, profits were normally given to the person in each rank as follows: Captain (5–6 shares), individuals with a senior position like the quartermaster (2 shares), crewmen (1 share), and individuals in a junior position (1/2 a share).^[2]

Early and Golden Age pirates

Jean Fleury

Born in Vatteville and financed by shipowner Jean Ango, French privateer Jean Fleury was Spain's nemesis. In 1522, he captured seven Spanish vessels. One year later most of Montezuma's Aztec treasure fell into his hands after he captured two of the three galleons in which Cortez shipped the fabled booty back to Spain. He was captured in 1527 and executed by order of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He had a very well equipped ship.

François Le Clerc

François Le Clerc also nicknamed "Jambe de bois" ("Pie de Palo", "wooden leg") was a formidable privateer, ennobled by Henri II in 1551. In 1552, Le Clerc ransacked Porto Santo. One year later, he mustered one thousand men and caused havoc in the Caribbean with his lieutenants Jacques de Sores and Robert Blondel. They pillaged and burned down the seaport of Santo Domingo, and ransacked Las Palmas in the Canary Islands on his way back to France. He led another expedition in 1554 and plundered Santiago de Cuba.

Blackbeard

He was born about 1680 in England as Edward Thatch, Teach, or Drummond, and operated off the east coast of North America, particularly pirating in the Bahamas^[1] and had a base in North Carolina^[18] in the period of 1714–1718. Noted as much for his outlandish appearance as for his piratical success, in combat Blackbeard placed burning slow-match (a type of slow-burning fuse used to set off cannon) under his hat; with his face wreathed in fire and smoke, his victims claimed he resembled a fiendish apparition from Hell. Blackbeard's ship was the two-hundred-ton, forty-gun frigate he named Queen Anne's Revenge.

Blackbeard met his end at the hands of a British Royal Navy squadron^[18] specifically sent out to capture him. After an extremely bloody boarding action, the British commanding officer of the squadron, Lieutenant Robert Maynard, killed him with the help of his crew. According to legend, Blackbeard suffered a total of five bullet wounds and twenty slashes with a cutlass before he finally died off the coast of Ocracoke, North Carolina.^[28]

Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan, a Welshman, was one of the most destructive pirate captains of the 17th century. Although Morgan always considered himself a privateer rather than a pirate, several of his attacks had no real legal justification and are considered piracy. Recently found off the coast of what is now known as the nation of Haiti, was one of Captain Morgan's "30-cannon oak ships," which was thought to have aided the buccaneer in his ventures.^[29] Another Caribbean area that was known for the headquarters of Captain Morgan was Port Royal, Jamaica.^[1] A bold, ruthless and daring man, Morgan fought England's enemies for thirty years, and became a very wealthy man in the course of his adventures. Morgan's most famous exploit came in late 1670 when he led 1700 buccaneers up the pestilential Chagres River and then through the Central American jungle to attack and capture the "impregnable" city of Panama. Morgan's men burnt the city to the ground, and the inhabitants were either killed or forced to flee. Although the burning of Panama City did not mean any great financial gain for Morgan, it was a deep blow to Spanish power and pride in the Caribbean and Morgan became the hero of the hour in England. At the height of his career, Morgan had been made a titled nobleman by the English Crown and lived on an enormous sugar plantation in Jamaica, as lieutenant governor.^[18] Morgan died in his bed, rich and respected—something rarely achieved by pirates in his day or any other.

Bartholomew Roberts

Bartholomew Roberts or Black Bart was successful in sinking, or capturing and pillaging some 400 ships.^[18] and like most pirate captains of the time he looked fancy doing it.^[26] He started his freebooting career in the Gulf of Guinea in February 1719 when Howell Davis' pirates captured his ship and he proceeded to join them. Rising to captain, he quickly came to the Caribbean and plagued the area until 1722. He commanded a number of large, powerfully armed ships, all of which he named Fortune, Good Fortune, or Royal Fortune. Aboard his vessels the political atmosphere was a form of democracy that depended on participation; in which was a rule that everyone aboard his ship had to vote on issues that arose.^[2] Efforts by the governors of Barbados and Martinique to capture him only provoked his anger; when he found the governor of Martinique aboard a newly captured vessel, Roberts hanged the man from a yardarm. Roberts returned to Africa in February 1722, where he met his death in a naval battle, whereby his crew was captured.

Amaro Pargo

Probably the least qualified pirate captain ever to sail the Caribbean, Bonnet was a sugar planter who knew nothing about sailing. He started his piracies in 1717 by buying an armed sloop on Barbados and recruiting a pirate crew for wages, possibly to escape from his wife. He lost his command to Blackbeard and sailed with him as his associate.^[18] Although Bonnet briefly regained his captaincy, he was captured in 1718 by a privateering vessel that was employed by South Carolina.^[18]

Charles Vane

Charles Vane, like many early 18th-century pirates, operated out of

Edward Low

Edward – or Ned – Low was notorious as one of the most brutal and vicious pirates. Originally from London, he started as a lieutenant to George Lowther, before striking out on his own. His career as a pirate lasted just three years, during which he captured over 100 ships, and he and his crew murdered, tortured and maimed hundreds of people. After his own crew mutinied in 1724 when Low murdered a sleeping subordinate, he was rescued by a French vessel who hanged him on Martinique island.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were infamous female pirates of the 18th century;

In the Caribbean the use of

By the seventeenth century piracy and privateering became less-acceptable behaviour, especially as many privateers turned into full-blown pirates so they would not have to give part of the profit they made back to their country of employment. Corruption led to the removal of many officials over the years, including Governor Nicholas Trott and Governor Benjamin Fletcher. One way that governments found and discouraged active pirates and corrupt privateers was through the use of "pirate hunters" who were bribed with all or at least most of the wealth that they would find aboard pirate vessels, along with a set bounty. The most renowned pirate hunter was Captain William Kidd, who hit the peak of his legal career in 1695 but later saw the benefits of illegal piracy and made that his new vocation.[18]

The most well-known privateer corsairs of the eighteenth century in the Spanish colonies were

Pirates involved specifically in the Caribbean were called buccaneers. Roughly speaking, they arrived in the 1630s and remained until the effective end of piracy in the 1730s. The original buccaneers were settlers that were deprived of their land by "Spanish authorities" and eventually were picked up by white settlers.^[2] The word "buccaneer" is actually from the French boucaner, meaning "to smoke meat", from the hunters of wild oxen curing meat over an open fire. They transferred the skills which kept them alive into piracy. They operated with the partial support of the non-Spanish colonies and until the 18th century their activities were legal, or partially legal and there were irregular amnesties from all nations. For the most part buccaneers attacked other vessel and ransacked settlements owned by the Spanish.^[18]

Traditionally buccaneers had a number of peculiarities. Their crews operated as a democracy: the captain was elected by the crew and they could vote to replace him. The captain had to be a leader and a fighter—in combat he was expected to be fighting with his men, not directing operations from a distance.

Spoils were evenly divided into shares; when the officers had a greater number of shares, it was because they took greater risks or had special skills. Often the crews would sail without wages—"on account"—and the spoils would be built up over a course of months before being divided. There was a strong esprit de corps among pirates. This allowed them to win sea battles: they typically outmanned trade vessels by a large ratio. There was also for some time a social insurance system, guaranteeing money or gold for battle wounds at a worked-out scale.

The romantic notion of pirates burying treasure on isolated islands^[2] and wearing gaudy clothes had some basis in fact. Most pirate wealth was accumulated by selling of chandlery items: ropes, sails, and block and tackle stripped from captured ships.

One undemocratic aspect of the buccaneers was that sometimes they would force specialists like carpenters or surgeons to sail with them for some time, though they were released when no longer needed (if they had not volunteered to join by that time). A typical poor man had few other promising career choices at the time apart from joining the pirates. According to reputation, the pirates' egalitarianism led them to liberate slaves when taking over slave ships. However, there are several accounts of pirates selling slaves captured on slave ships, sometimes after they had helped man the pirates' own vessels.

In combat they were considered ferocious and were reputed to be experts with flintlock weapons (invented in 1615), but these were so unreliable that they were not in widespread military use before the 1670s.

Slave pirates

Many slaves, primarily from places in Africa, were being exported to colonies in the Caribbean for slave labour on plantations. Out of the people that were forced into slavery and shipped off to colonies in the years from 1673 to 1798, approximately 9 to 32 percent were children (this number only considers the exports of British slavers).^[38] While on the average 12-week journey to the colonies, the new slaves endured ghastly living conditions that included cramped spaces too small to stand up in, hot temperatures, and poor diets. They were ravaged by disease and death. Many of those taken as slaves were victims or prisoners of civil war.^[26] Many aspects of being a slave overall increased the allure of the pirating lifestyle. During the 17th and 18th centuries, piracy was at its height and its symbolic interpretation of freedom was well received. This abstract ideal was very appealing to slaves and victims of imperialism. Even though the main European powers did not want slaves to find out about the freedom that piracy offered, "...30 percent of the 5000 or more pirates who were active between 1715 and 1725 were of African heritage".^[39] Along with the opportunity of a new life and freedom, the indigenous people of Africa were greeted with equality when they joined pirating communities. Many slaves turned pirate "secured" a position of leadership or prestige on pirating vessels, like that of Captain.^[39] The pirate Black Caesar, who served onboard the Queen Anne's Revenge under Blackbeard, was one of the best known slave pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy, being mentioned in the 1724 work A General History of the Pyrates.^[40]

Roberto Cofresí—a 19th-century pirate

Roberto Cofresí, better known as "El Pirata Cofresí", became interested in sailing at a young age. By the time he reached adulthood there were some political and economic difficulties in Puerto Rico, which at the time was a colony of Spain. Influenced by this situation he decided to become a pirate in 1818. Cofresí commanded several assaults against cargo vessels focusing on those that were responsible for exporting gold. During this time he focused his attention on boats from the United States and the local Spanish government ignored several of these actions. In early March 1825, Cofresí engaged the USS Grampus and a flotilla of ships led by Capt. John D. Sloat in battle. He eventually abandoned his ship and tried to escape by land before being captured. After being imprisoned he was sent to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where a brief military trial found him guilty and on 29 March 1825, he and other members of his crew were executed by a firing squad. After his death his life was used as inspiration for several stories and myths, which served as the basis for books and other media.^[41]

Boysie Singh—a 20th-century pirate

Boysie Singh, usually known as the Raja (the Hindi word for king), or just Boysie, was born on 5 April 1908 on 17 Luis Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Saint George County, Trinidad and Tobago to Bhagrang Singh (a fugitive who immigrated to Trinidad and Tobago from British India) and his wife.^[42]

He had a long and successful career as a gangster and gambler before turning to piracy and murder. For almost ten years, from 1947 until 1956 he and his gang terrorized the waters between Trinidad and Tobago and the

Boysie was well known to people in Trinidad and Tobago. He had successfully beaten a charge of breaking and entering which nearly resulted in his deportation before he was finally executed after losing his third case – for the murder of his niece. He was held in awe and dread by most of the population and was frequently seen strolling grandly about Port of Spain in the early 1950s wearing bright, stylish clothes. Mothers, nannies, and ajees would warn their children: "Behave yourself, man, or Boysie goyn getchu, allyuh!"^[43] Boysie Singh died in Port of Spain by being hanged on 20 August 1957 for the murder of a dancer, presumably his own niece.^[42]

Caribbean piracy in the 21st century

Piracy in the Caribbean is still present today, largely confined to small-scale pirating operations in the waters off of Venezuela, Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname. These pirates are often fishermen who have resorted to piracy due to economic crisis or turf wars between groups of fishers.

Much of the modern-day piracy in the southern Caribbean is a result of the economic upheaval in Venezuela. Venezuelan fishermen, who previously made a living off of catching tuna, shrimp, crab, and octopus, have lost this means of money due to the economic crisis, and are forced to resort to piracy on fishermen off the coasts of Guyana and Trinidad, robbing them and holding them for ransom.^[44][45]

Another major source of modern Caribbean piracy stems from turf wars between rival groups of fishermen from Guyana and Suriname. In April 2018, Guyanese nationals Chris Parsram, Rameshwar Roopnarine, Madre Kishore, David Williams, Ramdeo Persaud, Ray Torres, and Ganesh Beeharry were all arrested in Suriname and sentenced to 35 years in prison, for an attack on 20 Surinamese and Guyanese fishermen in which they were thrown overboard; only four made it to shore, with the rest being thrown into the water and presumed either dead or missing.^[46] The attack was believed to be in retaliation for the shooting death of their leader a few weeks prior.

Piracy in popular culture

A lot of fiction involving sea pirates and piracy takes place at the Caribbean Sea.

Films

• Many silent films of pirates, especially starring Douglas Fairbanks, such as The Black Pirate
• Captain Blood (1935)
• Treasure Island
• Return to Treasure Island
• Swashbuckler (1976)
• Cutthroat Island
• Pirates of the Caribbean films
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
• Pirates: The Blood Brothers
• Muppet Treasure Island
• Nate and Hayes
  , also known as Savage Islands
• Yellowbeard (1983)
• The Island (1980)
• The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012)

Games

• Monkey Island
  video game series
• Sea Dogs, a 2000 Russian role-playing video game for Windows
• Sid Meier's Pirates!, a video game
• Pirates of the Spanish Main
  , a tabletop game
• Pirates of the Burning Sea, an MMORPG set in the 1720s
• Merchants and Marauders, a 2010 board game by Christian Marcussen
• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, a video game part of the Assassin's Creed series
• Assassin's Creed Pirates
  , a video game part in the mobile series of Assassin's Creed series
• Port Royal
• Puzzle Pirates
• Age of Pirates
  games are for PC. Both games are no longer supported by their developers, support and fixes for these games can be found at piratesahoy.net and are created by experienced mod developers.
• Tropico 2, a video game. The player is a pirate king and must manage their island to gain money, leading their pirates and prisoners, and dealing with France, Spain, England.
• Blackwake
• Sea of Thieves, a video game

Popular books

• A General History of the Pyrates by Charles Johnson, the prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates, giving an almost mythical status to the more colorful characters, such as the infamous English pirates Blackbeard and Calico Jack, and influenced pirate literature that followed.
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson—a novel with a huge influence on pirates in the public imagination, particularly in the character of the quintessential pirate, Long John Silver
• Monmouth's Rebellion and turned pirate during the reign of James II
  .
• The Black Corsair (Il Corsaro Nero, 1898) by Emilio Salgari and its 4 sequels.
• "Pirates!" by Celia Rees a novel about young Nancy and her half sister Minerva who find themselves hunted by the authorities and are rescued by pirates.
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman
• On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers – pirates, voodoo, zombies, and the Fountain of Youth.
• Empire of Blue Water by Stephan Talty – The story of Captain Morgan and the real pirates of the Caribbean.
• Pirate Latitudes – a posthumous novel by Michael Crichton
• In the Time Machine series, the fourth book, Sail with Pirates, had the protagonist searching for a treasure ship that sank in the Caribbean and having to defeat the pirates of the region.
• To Catch a Pirate by
  Jade Parker
• The Pyrates by George MacDonald Fraser—a comedic novel tracing the adventures of Captain Benjamin Avery (RN) multiple damsels in distress, and the six captains who lead the infamous Coast Brotherhood (Calico Jack Rackham, Black Bilbo, Firebeard, Happy Dan Pew, Akbar the Terrible and Sheba the She-Wolf).
• "The Island" by Peter Benchly (1979)
• "Daughter of the Pirate King" by Tricia Levenseller (2017)