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Main Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy
Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age PiracyGabriel Kuhn
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pr aise for life under the jolly roger In the golden age of piracy thousands plied the seas in egalitarian and communal alternatives to the piratical age of gold. The last gasps of the hundreds who were hanged and the blood-curdling cries of the thousands traded as slaves inflated the speculative financial bubbles of empire putting an end to these Robin Hood's of the deep seas. In addition to history Gabriel Kuhn's radical piratology brings philosophy, ethnography, and cultural studies to the stark question of the time: which were the criminals—bankers and brokers or sailors and slaves? By so doing he supplies us with another case where the history isn't dead, it's not even past! Onwards to health-care by eye-patch, peg-leg, and hook! Peter Linebaugh, author of The London Hanged, co-author of The Many-Headed Hydra This vital book provides a crucial and hardheaded look at the history and mythology of pirates, neither the demonization of pirates as bloodthirsty thieves, nor their romanticization as radical communitarians, but rather a radical revisioning of who they were, and most importantly, what their stories mean for radical movements today. Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words and Endgame Stripping the veneers of reactionary denigration and revolutionary romanticism alike from the realities of "golden age" piracy, Gabriel Kuhn reveals the sociopolitical potentials bound up in the pirates' legacy better than anyone who has dealt with the topic to date. Life Under the Jolly Roger is important reading for anyone already fascinated by the phenomena of pirates and piracy. The more so, those who aren't. Ward Churchill, author of Acts of Rebellion In this elegantly and incisively written work, Gabriel Kuhn provides a provocative interpretation of the history of piracy and contemporary "pirate debates." This intelligent book is a tour de force and required reading for both the radical and the scholarly community. Andrej Grubacic, radical historian and sociologist Life Under the Jolly Roger will appeal to anyone interested in pirates and radical practice. It brings the golden age of piracy to life and shows us the link to contemporary radical politics. I recommend this book to those who identify with pirates and seek a well-reasoned analysis of their legacy. Luis A. Fernandez, author of Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-Globalization Movement In Life Under the Jolly Roger, Gabriel Kuhn takes on the far flung sources regarding golden age piracy not in order to establish a definitive truth about them but to dispel myths, clarify what we can know for sure about the pirates and what realistic questions remain, and to elucidate what the pirate legacy might mean for people today who also see themselves as excluded by or at war with the developing global order. Kuhn's sincerely curious, detailed, and multifaceted investigation of piracy helps us reconfigure our historical understanding of such broad themes as the development of capitalism, colonialism, race, discipline and the human body, physical disability, rebellion and political violence, guerrilla warfare, and more. The book has the potential of becoming something of a milestone achievement in this regard… Peter Gelderloos, author of How Nonviolence Protects the State Piracy is as relevant in today's world as it ever was, and if you want to understand why it happens and what it really means, this is the book to start with. While modern-day robber barons give pirating a bad name, this important book restores the balance through a lively and provocative narrative. Definitely one to read, and to treasure! Randall Amster, Professor of Peace Studies, Prescott College It is rare to find a book that is not only entertaining but broadens your knowledge as well. More rare even, a book that not only enhances your knowledge but your perspective as well: this is the first time the subject of pirates has been analysed using such a variety of theories, each of which lets you see history—its stories from a different angle. Even if you think you'd never be interested in the history of pirates, take a look at this book and you will be. Nora Räthzel, Institute for Migration and Racism Studies, Hamburg Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy is a very important book and a provocative read, especially in light of the current pace and space of globalization. In this book we find a new analysis of piracy via diverse political frameworks, and the ways in which they posed as political threats. Pat Lauderdale, Professor of Justice, Arizona State University In this vivid and exciting work, Gabriel Kuhn breaks new ground in philosophical, historical, sociological and political reflection on piracy. Life Under the Jolly Roger is an absorbing mixture fulfilling both the needs of the theorist and the curiosity of the pirate-story lover. This book will be enjoyed by anyone who sees no contradiction between adventure and scholarly care. Katharina Lacina, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna At a time when there are an increasing number of books examining the history of left resistance and countercultural communities, Gabriel Kuhn's book Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy is an important contribution. Kuhn salvages the pirate from both Saturday afternoon movie mythology and dewy-eyed romanticism, introducing the reader to an impulse for freedom that was as grim as it is inspiring. And, perhaps best of all, it's fun to read. André Moncourt, co-editor of The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History Since I myself crossed the Atlantic on an old merchant ship, I can imagine some of the difficulties the pirates must have had. The ship is a sort of prison or "total institution," life on board is always threatened by extreme scarcity and dangers of all sorts, necessities cannot be fulfilled, the men have to be prepared for violence as robbers and warriors, and there are neither women nor children around, neither trees nor meadows. Pirate "culture" can only have been a heavily patriarchal one. Unlike many self-declared radicals, Gabriel Kuhn never denies this while exploring the political connotations of the pirates' "golden age." This alone makes his incredibly multifaceted study worth reading. Claudia von Werlhof, Professor of Women's Studies, University of Innsbruck, Austria Courageously broad in its scope, Kuhn has written a great introduction to the contemporary relevance of piracy, and has produced an ambitious and much needed 21st century (bio) political analysis. Using more traditional and current theory and theorists, Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy helps to understand economic and cultural relationships with crime, which have been poorly understood by many progressive people for too long. This book helps to correct that deficit, and is to be warmly recommended for both the specialist and general reader. Trevor Bark, Workers Educational Association, Capital & Class More than an historical analysis, Kuhn's reinterpretation of "golden age" piracy combines a realistic appraisal of the archival evidence and traces left by sea bandits with a rich vein of anarchist theory that runs through Clastres, Deleuze and Guattari and Hobsbawm, to give us a radical reconceptualisation of piracy with genuine contemporary relevance. His understanding of the pirates' strategies, tactics, organization and politics will be essential reading for piratologists and activists alike. Christopher Land, Essex Business School Gabriel Kuhn cuts through many of the cherished myths about the Golden Age of piracy, yet leaves a radical core that continues to inspire. Life Under the Jolly Roger is wide ranging, ambitious, and highly readable. It's a very welcome contribution to the radical study of piracy. David Tighe, No Quarter Zine Like any great addition to the outsider canon of historical revision, this book provides a great challenge to what we might consider empirical truth in the realm of pirate lore. Here is a socio-cultural examination of the "golden age of piracy" that takes into account contemporary notions of community, democracy, and even economic reality. Pirates can no longer be relegated to the fringe without question, since their very existence casts a distinct reflection upon the pillars of any given societal center. Extensively researched, Life Under the Jolly Roger is a cohesive, highly readable narrative history that leaves readers with a new sense of what lies behind the term "pirate." Brian Maxwell, Department of English, University of North Dakota Kuhn's empirically grounded meditation on what the Golden Age of piracy might mean to us today contributes to the work of imagining how alternative democratic social, economic, and political spaces may be carved out from within the contemporary global regime of patriarchy, white supremacy, and monopoly capitalism. By combining sound empirical research with a critical post-modern epistemology and great writing—a rare combination indeed— the work speaks to our need for inspiration as well as intellectual edification. Mark Harvey, Department of Sociology, Florida Atlantic University Life Under the Jolly Roger is a carefully researched account of golden age piracy that departs from the usual ideological banter. Its fresh perspective on the cultural and political implications of pirates breathes new life into dusty historical accounts, connecting them to contemporary social issues with insight and clarity. Most importantly, it offers lessons for practicing non-authoritative and egalitarian ideals in the here and now. Emily Gaarder, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Minnesota Duluth This is both an excellent account of piracy during its golden age and a great source of inspiration for social organizing beyond hierarchies and state power. The book reclaims the dignity of piracy in the light of modern day sea robbers and hijackers. Klas Andersson, seaman and world traveler The injustices we experience today are only amplifications of the exploitative acts committed by individuals, nations and companies of the past. It can and should be argued that piracy was not a treacherous and barbaric act committed by thugs and scavengers as the media of the time portrayed it to be. Rather it should be recognized as an act of dissidence against the greater monster of imperial barbarism that merchant fleets exported to distant shores. This, however, must be done with reason and style. That is why Life under the Jolly Roger is such a refreshing read. Franklin Graham, Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy 5 Gabriel Kuhn Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy ISBN: 978-1-60486-052-8 LCCN: 2009901380 Copyright ©2010 Gabriel Kuhn This edition copyright ©2010 PM Press All Rights Reserved PM Press PO Box 23912 Oakland, CA 94623 www.pmpress.org Layout by Kersplebedeb Cover art by John Yates Printed in the USA, on recycled paper contents 0. Introduction 1 1. Background 7 1.1. Privateers, Buccaneers, Pirates: Matters Of Terminology 1.2. What "Golden Age?" A Little History 2. "Enemy of His Own Civilization" An Ethnography of Golden Age Piracy 7 10 23 2.1. "From the Sea": Maritime Nomads 24 2.2. "Smooth" vs. "Striated": The Question of Space 27 2.3. Pirate Captains and Indian Chiefs: Remembering Pierre Clastres 30 2.4. Potlatches, Zero-Production, and Parasitism: Pirate Economy 34 2.5. No State, No Accumulation, No History: Pirates as "Primitives"? 43 2.6. "Cultural Contact": Pirates and the Non-European People of the Caribbean 46 3. "Social Origins," or The European Legacy Golden Age Piracy and Cultural Studies 51 3.1. Fashion, Food, Fun, Lingo: Circumscribing the Pirate Subculture 52 3.2. "Villains of all Nations?": Piracy and (Trans)Nationality 57 3.3. Satanists and Sabbatarians: Piracy and Religion 61 3.4. A Colorful Atlantic? Piracy and Race 64 3.5. Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and a Co-opted Myth: Piracy and Gender 71 3.6. On Sodomites and Prostitutes: Piracy and Sexuality 74 3.7. Escaping Discipline and "Biopolitics": The Pirate Body 77 3.8. Eye Patches, Hook Hands, and Wooden Legs: Piracy and Disability 80 4. "Ni dieu, ni maître" Golden Age Piracy and Politics 83 4.1. From "Brethren of the Coast" to a "Commonwealth of Outlaws": Pirate Organization 83 4.2. Flying the Black Flag: The Jolly Roger 94 4.3. Is This Anarchy? Matters of Definition i 95 4.4. The War Machine: Reading Piracy with Deleuze and Guattari 96 4.5. Tactics: Pirates and Guerrilla Warfare 101 4.6. Revolutionary, Radical, and Proletarian Pirates? Matters of Definition ii 110 4.7. Pirates as Social Bandits: Homage to E. J. Hobsbawm 118 4.8. Libertalia: Another Reading 128 4.9. Safe Havens, Onshore Settlements, Pirate Utopias: Pirates on Land 136 4.10. "Piratical Imperialism," Hypocrisy, and the Merchants' Wrath: Piracy and Capitalism 147 4.11. Victims of Circumstance or Bloodthirsty Sadists? Piracy and Violence 153 4.12. Vengeance as Justice: Pirate Ethics 158 4.13. Dionysus in the West Indies: A Nietzschean Look at Golden Age Piracy 162 5. Conclusion: The Golden Age Pirates' Political Legacy 173 6. Notes on Pirate Literature 183 7. Bibliography 187 Notes 201 Index 249 0. Introduction In his 2007 essay "Flying the black flag: Revolt, revolution and the social organization of piracy in the 'golden age,'" Chris Land suggests that "the pirate is a figure in full sympathy with the Zeitgeist of the early 21st century."1 Arguably, the figure of the pirate has been in full sympathy with many eras over the past 300 years, achieving "semi-legendary status,"2 creating its "own mythology,"3 and leaving "an indelible mark in the psyche of the Western world."4 However, the current pirate craze is certainly of a particular strength. Even if epitomized in the Pirates of the Caribbean series and its charismatic villain Jack Sparrow (or the devilishly handsome Johnny Depp), the attention that pirates have received in recent years is by no means limited to the big screen and the toy sections of department stores. There have also been significant scholarly contributions. This does not make it easy to find a place for yet another pirate book. After all, one does not want to reiterate but to contribute. This book attempts to find its place in linking the historical data collected on piracy's "golden age," originating in the Caribbean and spanning from roughly 1690 to 1725, to a number of theoretical notions and concepts that might allow us to view the cultural and political significance of golden age piracy in a new light. An important aspect of this venture is the desire to go beyond a certain antagonism that seems to have developed over the last decade with respect to the political interpretation of golden age piracy. On the one hand, there are scholars who insist that "the real world of the pirates was harsh, tough and cruel"5 and that the pirates "acquired a romantic aura … which they certainly never deserved;"6 on the other hand, there are those who maintain that "these outlaws led audacious, rebellious lives, and [that] we should remember 2 Life Under the Jolly Roger them as long as there are powerful people and oppressive circumstances to be resisted." 7 The ideological assumptions behind these two perspectives are as clear as their respective consequences. While for the adherents of the former, "pirates tend to get a better press than they deserve, often being admired for their laid-back life-style and praised as proto-revolutionaries or democrats rather than condemned as the murderers and thieves that most of them were,"8 the adherents of the latter embrace Marcus Rediker's perception that pirates were "rebels" who "challenged, in one way or another, the conventions of class, race, gender, and nation," "expressed high ideals," and "abolished the wage, established a different discipline, practiced their own kind of democracy and equality, and provided an alternative model for running the deepsea ship."9 In the end, both sides accuse the other of substituting fiction for fact. While skeptics of an alleged pirate romanticism find it important "to present the difference between myth and reality for those who want to peer behind the romantic legacy of piracy,"10 their radical opponents accuse them of maintaining a reactionary law and order philosophy. In short, self-declared reason and alleged conservatism oppose self-declared radicalism and alleged romance. Although this book is written from a radical perspective, it will try to avoid this debate for several reasons: 1. It cannot be decided: The lack of reliable material on the everyday lives and exploits of the golden age pirates is notorious. Philip Gosse's conclusion that "of the life on board buccaneer and pirate ships a somewhat hazy and incomplete picture reaches us," is a very generous way of phrasing it.11 While there exist a few precious—and probably authentic—accounts of the life on buccaneer ships (most notably those of Exquemelin, Dampier, Ringrose, de Lussan and Reyning12), our images of life on pirate ships still rest to an overwhelming degree on Captain Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates.13 The first volume of the General History appeared in London in 1724, containing almost two dozen stories about pirate captains, from Henry Every and Blackbeard to Bartholomew Roberts and Edward Low. Literary liberties were certainly taken in transcribing these stories—for example, the frequent inclusion of on-ship dialogue provokes indeed the comment that "it would be hard to imagine who had been able to record it"14 —yet subsequent Introduction 3 research has confirmed many details and the volume is generally considered to be a reliable historical source. In 1726, Johnson added a second volume, expanding the number of stories to over thirty. Confirmation for many of these remains scarce. The most famous—about Captain Misson and his utopian community Libertalia—is almost certainly fabricated. Some pirate scholars have taken this as reason enough not to cite or reference the General History's second volume at all.15 This book follows the decision of most others and includes the parts that appear plausible according to later historical research. As far as the story of Captain Misson is concerned, it will be discussed as an important story for radical pirate lore rather than as a historical event. The main reason for the continuing significance of Johnson's classic for pirate historiography is, quite simply, a lack of better sources. Reliable firsthand accounts of life on pirate ships and in pirate communities during the golden age are missing, and even the outstanding work conducted in recent decades by historians like David Cordingly, Peter Earle, and Marcus Rediker, who have unearthed many valuable secondary sources, cannot make these accounts magically appear. The evaluation of golden age pirate life—and hence its politics—continues to rest on guesswork and speculation. 2. Given the lack of historical sources, the danger of romanticization is indeed imminent: Romanticization is a double-edged sword. Under certain circumstances, it can be a useful tactical weapon to provoke and inspire. In the mid90s, the members of Minneapolis' anarcho-punk collective Profane Existence offered the following interpretation: The idea of objective truth is bullshit. The belief that you can describe or interpret history exactly as it happened is a lie. Those who are in power are also those who usually get to define what is 'true.' By romanticizing events we not only offer an alternative interpretation to the 'truth,' we also challenge the ruling class and the mass media's claim to a monopoly on truth. We say our interpretation of politics and history is as good as theirs and that if you're going to believe one pack of lies you might as well believe ours!16 On a political plane, this sounds convincing. However, what sometimes works as a tactical weapon does not necessarily work for levelheaded discussion—which can be as inspiring (and provocative) as no-qualms romanticism. 4 Life Under the Jolly Roger In fact, it can be more so. After all, romanticizing is an inherent part of the bourgeois tradition as well. This also applies to piracy: The pirate tale … is the product of the bourgeois imagination. One of its most important functions is to provide a safety valve against the pressures put on the individual by the demands of bourgeois morality. … The key fantasies are those of unrestrained liberty and power—compensations for what the prudent bourgeois can never achieve, however successful he is materially.17 In these lines, we might find the answer as to why the "Zeitgeist factor" of piracy has always transcended radical circles. Maurice Besson asserts that already in the 17th century, the buccaneers "offered Europe, at a moment when the formalism of the classic revival seemed to be banishing adventure, a dream world founded upon fabulous stories, astounding fortunes, heroic deeds, and orgies of the camp."18 And even non-radical historians concede that "pirates are a recognizable and emotive image that represents a freedom of action that is denied to most law-abiding modern citizens."19 According to these observations, the bourgeois creates imaginary alter egos that help him accept the libidinal restrictions of his everyday existence. In this context, the alleged freedom and might of the pirates serve the same purpose as Hollywood action heroes or the Marlboro Man—not exactly characters suitable as radical role models. In the end, romanticized notions about golden age piracy might often play more into the hands of economic exploitation than into those of radical activists. 3. It is questionable whether evaluating golden age piracy politically is at all relevant for contemporary radical politics: Contemporary radical politics are not about pirates from a past long gone, they are about people right here and now. The question is whether and how they can relate to golden age piracy in ways that inform and inspire their radical aspirations, no matter the pirates' faults or shortcomings—particularly if Hans Turley is right in stating that "I am not sure that the 'reality' of the pirates, their day-to-day social existence, is something readers want to know."20 Politically, the question of how contemporary activists can relate to golden age pirates seems much more crucial than the inevitably contested truth about golden age piracy. In other words, the political interpretation of golden age piracy matters less than its contemporary political adaptation. Introduction 5 In light of this, the intentions of the book can be summarized as follows: One, adding guesses and speculations about golden age pirate life to those that already exist, and thereby engaging in a dialogue with others studying the subject. Two, trying to explore the pirate myth rather than trying to disclose an alleged pirate truth, following the verdict that here, "the legend and the reality are woven into a fabric impossible to unravel. However, the way this fabric is woven can be examined."21 Three, rendering the radical fascination with piracy politically valuable in the contemporary context, and suggesting ways in which the Jolly Roger can fly from balconies and at rallies without this being mere symbolic ritualism. In this vein, it becomes one of the book's main intentions to disprove the conclusion that "the … pirates left us with no legacy except an aura that they never deserved."22 While I sincerely hope that this book can arouse the interest of a broad spectrum of readers—a spectrum that goes beyond the narrow confines of political self-labeling—it would make little sense to deny that it was written from what has been called a radical perspective. By this I mean a perspective that envisions social change running deeper than a series of reforms within the prevailing social, cultural, economic, and political order: social change that affects the very fundamentals of our society and makes way for non-authoritarian and egalitarian communities. Unsurprisingly, the volume builds on the exceptional work done by several radical pirate scholars such as Christopher Hill, Marcus Rediker, 23 Peter Lamborn Wilson, Stephen Snelders, and Chris Land. Any criticism that might be voiced with respect to some of their conclusions must be understood as a criticism of solidarity that aims at advancing the political discussions on golden age piracy. Without these scholars' work, and the inspiration drawn from it, this book could not have been written. The same is true of course for the equally exceptional work conducted by non-radical scholars like Robert C. Ritchie, David Cordingly, Angus Konstam, or Peter Earle. 24 The volume is laid out as follows: Chapter One will provide a brief historical sketch of golden age piracy and the preceding era of the buccaneers. It mainly intends to build an adequate empirical frame of reference for the discussions that follow. Extensive histories of golden age piracy have been written by authors much more capable of 6 Life Under the Jolly Roger the task than I am. Please see the "Notes on Pirate Literature" at the end of the book for more details. Chapters Two and Three approach the culture of golden age piracy from two angles. Chapter Two focuses on the interpretation of golden age piracy as "an alternative world governed by different kinds of norms."25 It will attempt to provide an ethnography of golden age piracy. Chapter Three focuses on golden age piracy as an "alternative" or "subversive" part of Euro-American cultural history. Chapter Four will address the concrete political implications and possibilities of golden age piracy: its politico-historical significance, its social and organizational structures, its economy, and its ethics. Comparisons to different political theories and movements as well as reflections on the readings of commentators on pirate politics are of particular importance. The concluding essay, "The Golden Age Pirates' Political Legacy," will summarize the book's main arguments, tie them to contemporary politics, and attempt to make them valuable in a radical context. The bibliography contains some introductory commentary to orient readers within the ever-growing body of English pirate literature. For didactic purposes, capitalization, punctuation, and, very rarely, the spelling in quoted passages have been adjusted to the main body of the text, except when misapprehensions seemed possible. I take full responsibility for these decisions. On a final note: some of the themes developed in this book build on a short German essay I wrote in 1993. The essay experienced a somewhat curious publishing history and an English translation, entitled "Life Under the Death's Head," appeared as part of the Black Rose book Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger—a volume that one critic described as "agitprop … by three German anarchists … clearly designed as a situationist challenge."26 Apart from the petty (or not so petty) details that I am not German and that I have my doubts whether Ulrike Klausmann and Marion Meinzerin—who wrote most of the book—would identify as anarchists, I take this to be a rather flattering description.27 1. Background 1.1. Privateers, Buccaneers, Pirates: Matters of Terminology "One great difficulty which the author of this work is met with is to decide who was, and who was not, a pirate,"1 wrote Philip Gosse in 1924, as part of the introduction to The Pirates' Who's Who. The same difficulty is still faced by anyone writing about pirates today. In general, a wide definition of piracy competes with a narrow one. The former builds on the suggestion that a pirate, in the words of David Cordingly, simply "was, and is, someone who robs and plunders on the sea."2 In a similar vein, German author Reiner Treinen writes that "generally, we can understand sea robbery and piracy as analogies to common robbery and the activities of common robber gangs."3 Obviously, the problem with this definition is that it depends on our understanding of "robbery"—a notion that has been highly contested throughout history, usually based on conflicting political interests. While, for example, in the eyes of the Spanish all ships preying on Spanish commerce in the Caribbean were "sea robbers," and hence "pirates," many were licensed raiders ("buccaneers" acting as "privateers") in the eyes of the English, French or Dutch. As Hans Turley suggests, "the buccaneer differs from the pirate because he was an outlaw-made-nationalhero."4 It will not surprise us then that some observers have also coined the term "patriotic piracy"5 for the activities of the buccaneers. The narrow definition of piracy attempts to escape this conundrum, as it considers pirates only those sea robbers who carry no license by any legal authority, who target all ships, regardless of the national colors they fly, and who are "unwilling to be registered or corrupted by either money or office."6 These are the "hostes humani generis," the "enemies of mankind," 7 the "villains of all nations."8 Their activities have been coined by some as "autonomous 8 Life Under the Jolly Roger piracy"9—in the eyes of the authorities, "a Kind of Piracy which disgraces our Civilisation."10 In order to distinguish them from licensed sea robbers, these pirates have been called "the pirates proper,"11 "out-and-out pirates,"12 "fullblown pirates,"13 or "pirate[s] in the truest sense."14 In the English legal dictum of the early 18th century, they were defined with the following words: "A pirate is in a perpetual war with every individual, and every state, Christian or infidel. Pirates properly have no country, but by the nature of their guilt, separate themselves, and renounce on this matter, the benefit of all lawful societies."15 This definition also accounts for the succinct observation that "piracy was never merely robbery"16 —a fact on which much of its mythology is grounded. This book will mainly work with the narrow definition of piracy. In fact, the group of pirates on which it focuses not only excludes those being licensed by legal authority, but also those who operated from secure land bases. The reason for this is the particular attention given to the nomadic element of golden age piracy—a feature that asks for a special and unique analytical approach. Despite certain structural similarities stemming from their common profession, historical pirate communities like those of the British Channel, the Barbary Coast or the China Sea constitute fundamentally different social phenomena as their relations to the land, local communities and political authorities were much more clearly defined, even if great diversity existed within their respective modes of organization and activities.17 The same goes for current pirate communities like those operating along the Northeast African coast. Robert C. Ritchie provides a useful distinction when dividing pirates according to two different methods of operation: one can be defined as organized marauding, the other as anarchistic marauding. Many men were involved in both; yet a distinction can be made. Organized pirates remained attached to a port as their base of operation. Anarchistic marauding involved leaving behind the base of operation and wandering for months—even years—at a time.18 An explanation of terms that commonly appear in connection with pirate history follows: A buccaneer was originally a hunter on the island of Hispaniola (today divided into the Dominican Republic and Haiti). This was the meaning of the term for the first half of the 17th century. As the buccaneers gradually Background 9 turned to sea robbery and raiding—often licensed, sometimes not— the term became a synonym for Caribbean pirates. It was used as such until about 1690, when buccaneer culture came to its end and gave way to "proper," or golden age, piracy. Due to the strong cultural ties between the buccaneers and the golden age pirates, the former will feature prominently in this book. A privateer is a sea robber who acts under the license of a legal authority. In the Caribbean of the 17th century, such a license was usually conferred by a letter of marque. In a sense, privateers were seaborne mercenary forces who engaged in "piracy with state-sponsorship."19 Captain Johnson described privateering indecisively as "something like pirating."20 Privateering served those in power well, since it "was a useful extension of naval warfare which not only created an income for the government issuing the privateering contract, but also helped to harass enemy shipping in times of war, without the issuing authority having to do anything."21 Most buccaneers worked as privateers. According to Jenifer G. Marx, buccaneering became "a peculiar blend of piracy and privateering in which the two elements were often indistinguishable." 22 Despite this, the implications of both activities seen separately remained diametrically opposed. In Janice E. Thomson's words: "Privateering reflected state rulers' efforts to build state power; piracy reflected some people's efforts to resist that project."23 Flibustier was the French term for a buccaneer. It has sometimes retrospectively been translated into the English filibuster, even though this term only came to be used in the 18th century, partly in connection with illegal American military infiltration into Latin America, and more lastingly as the signifier for a legal procedure. Corsair was a French term sometimes used synonymously with pirate, but usually reserved for the pirates of the Mediterranean. Sea dog was often used for the English privateers of the 16th century, the most famous being Francis Drake. Other synonyms for pirate not employed here include sea rover, freebooter, marooner, the picturesque picaroon, or swashbuckler, which originally served as a 16th-century term for brigands and was only applied to pirates by 19 thcentury novelists and 20th-century scriptwriters.24 10 Life Under the Jolly Roger 1.2. What "Golden Age?" A Little History The following pages provide a brief overview of the development of piracy in the Caribbean leading up to the "golden age," during which the operations of originally Caribbean-based pirates extended along the coasts of the Americas, into the Indian Ocean, and, finally, to the west coast of Africa. Different historians have given the golden age different time frames, depending both on their respective definitions of piracy and the weight given to certain historical events and developments. While most place the end of golden age piracy somewhere between 1722 (the death of Captain Roberts and the mass arrest of his crew) and 1730 (the execution of Olivier La Buse), there is less of an agreement on its beginnings. While some include even the age of the buccaneers and let the golden age begin around 1650, others quote years as late as 1716, when the last major outbreak of non-licensed piracy in the Caribbean took shape. It seems most useful to follow those scholars who place the beginning of the golden age in the early 1690s. At that time, some Anglo-American privateers and mutineers began to sail their vessels into the Indian Ocean to prey on ships of all nations, those of the English and their allies included. It is told that the New England privateer captain Thomas Tew convinced his crew to go pirating in 1692 by suggesting "that it was better to risk your life for plunder than for government."1 If there is any truth to this tale, then this moment seems indeed decisive for the pirate phenomenon studied in this volume. The following timeline intends to shed some light on the genesis and development of the golden age: 1492: Christopher Columbus and his crew arrive at the island of Hispaniola. 1492–c. 1620: Spain establishes a near exclusive hold on the Caribbean region and punishes "interlopers" indiscriminately. Most famously, a shortlived French Huguenot settlement in Florida is crushed with brutal force in 1565. Throughout the entire period, there is no peace beyond the line, meaning that whatever peace treaties are signed in Europe, they do not apply to the areas west of the meridian the Spanish drew in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas to demarcate their newly "discovered" American territories. c. 1520–1550: French privateers start preying on Spain's transatlantic trade. At first, Spanish ships are almost exclusively attacked on their return journeys to Europe. In the 1530s, however, French ships begin to venture into Background 11 the Caribbean itself, initiating a period that turns the region into "a happy hunting-ground"2 and "a paradise for an adventurous robber."3 c. 1550–1600: English privateers, the sea dogs, increasingly penetrate the Caribbean realm to attack Spanish commerce. Francis Drake, called "my pirate" by Queen Elizabeth, is the most legendary. The era of the sea dogs ends with the death of Philip ii in 1598. c. 1600–1635: Dutch privateers cause enormous damage to Spanish commerce in the Caribbean and weaken the Spanish hold over the area to a degree that allows the establishment of non-Spanish settlements which, in the words of one historian, "developed out of the piracy of the preceding century."4 The Dutch privateers also make it possible for Dutch traders to take control of Caribbean commerce for decades. 5 During the same period, men who have been described as "a remarkable blend of human flotsam"6 as well as "a motley crowd" 7 begin to form a "male, maritime and migrant culture"8 in the western parts of Hispaniola (modernday Haiti), leading a "half-savage, independent mode of life,"9 sustained by hunting wild boars and cattle. The animals are remnants of Spanish settlements evacuated by the Spanish authorities in 1603 after its inhabitants had been suspected of trading with rival European nations.10 This marks the beginning of the buccaneers, "these strange people,"11 "a ruffiantly, dare-devil lot, who feared neither God, man, nor death,"12 "tough frontiersmen living beyond the law,"13 "outlaw hunters"14 "scarcely less wild than the animals they hunted,"15 "men who could never live in the bosom of ordered society, men who lived for the moment, swaggerers, lovers of glory, men sometimes cruel, often generous, but cowards, never."16 The buccaneers are named after a meat-smoking device apparently called buccan in the language of the indigenous Caribs. Some conservative historians have drawn a rather dramatic picture of the buccaneers' existence: They were savages in dress and habits. No amount of bathing could eradicate the stink of guts and grease that clung to them. Their rough homespun garments were stiff with the blood of slaughtered animals. They made their round brimless hats, boots, and belts of untanned hides, and smeared their faces with tallow to repel insects. On the coast they lived in shacks covered with palm leaves and slept in sleeping bags next to smoking fires to ward off mosquitoes.17 12 Life Under the Jolly Roger This has led certain authors to the pointed conclusion that "life among the 'Brethren of the Coast' cannot have been pleasant for anyone with a sensitive nose."18 Others, however, have conceded that "for many it was a good life, impossible to duplicate in Europe: enough to eat, independence, freedom from masters."19 "The origins of these men we do not know," writes C. H. Haring,20 but it has to be assumed that they constituted a blend of "stragglers from all three nations"—meaning France, England, and the Netherlands—"stranded, marooned, or shipwrecked crewmen; deserters; runaway bond servants and slaves; adventurers of all sorts."21 Maybe they indeed included "all such as disliked organised society."22 "All, whatever they were originally, seem to have been hearty, care-free men who preferred a life of semi-savagery to the tiresome laws and orders of the civilised world."23 c. 1620–1640: Despite fierce Spanish resistance, the English, French, and Dutch all establish holds in the Caribbean, particularly on the islands of the Lesser Antilles. The colonial tables in the Caribbean are about to turn. As one historian has noted, "living cheek by jowl with their enemies, they brought the Spanish crown a century of unrelieved woe."24 c. 1630–1650: The number of buccaneers on Hispaniola steadily increases due to displaced settlers, runaway slaves, and fugitive or dismissed indentured laborers. According to Stephen Snelders, "the Brethren of the Coast functioned as a kind of chaotic attractor, serving as a focus for adventurous, rebellious, and outlaw elements,"25 while Carl and Roberta Bridenbaugh suggest that "buccaneering syphoned off the most adventurous, pugnacious, and greedy of the landless males of the crowded English islands."26 Worried about the expansion of the multinational buccaneering community in the heart of their empire, the Spanish conduct ill-conceived attempts at chasing the buccaneers from the island in the 1630s by killing off the herds of boars and cattle. The attempt backfires. The buccaneers stay, but have to turn to new means of livelihood. One is sea robbery. By the 1630s, buccaneer gangs in dugout canoes or flyboats embark on nightly attacks against Spanish galleons. By the 1650s, the term buccaneer "was exclusively used to refer to maritime raiders."27 During the same time, the island of Tortuga (across a small strait off Hispaniola's northwestern tip) turns into a buccaneer center and remains highly contested for decades. With the well-protected island as a safe haven, Background 13 the buccaneers slowly develop into a community that will have "a tremendous impact on the life of the West Indies"28 and prove much more disastrous to the Spanish than the presence of some "savage hunters" in the remote areas of Hispaniola could have ever been. 1655–1697: The English expedition sent to the Caribbean by Oliver Cromwell takes Jamaica in 1655. Subsequently, many English buccaneers from Hispaniola and Tortuga flock to the island—enough that by the 1660s, buccaneering has turned into "the island's principal source of revenue."29 This constitutes a split in the buccaneer community along national lines. While the English buccaneers establish themselves in Jamaica, their French "brethren" remain on Tortuga and Hispaniola. Meanwhile, "buccaneering evolved from small-scale operations in the West Indies to massive land raids."30 "A practice that started as a few men in a canoe waiting to catch an unwary coastal freighter, gradually grew to large ships with over a hundred in the crew, and finally to whole fleets."31 The buccaneers turn into a military force, engaging in ambitious amphibious raids under legendary leaders like Henry Morgan (most renowned for the sack of Panama in 1671). According to Franklin W. Knight, they "achieved international fame,"32 all this to the delight of the colonial English and French authorities. As Peter Earle explains: The governors of Jamaica and Tortuga for their part believed that privateering had many advantages, providing as it did employment for some very rough men, profits from fitting out and victualling the privateers' ships, a stream of prizes to be sold cheaply in their markets and an effective and costless naval defence against counter-attack by the Spaniards. As for the governments at home in London and Paris, they were normally happy to condone or even actively encourage the issue of commissions in the West Indies. They believed that this continued pressure was the best method of encouraging Spain to recognise their de facto colonies in the Indies and ideally allow their traders to break into the lucrative Spanish colonial markets which were maintained as a monopoly for Spaniards. They were also aware that the capture of Spanish shipping was an effective means of removing the competition and so providing an encouragement for English and French merchant shipping to break into the trade of the region. 33 14 Life Under the Jolly Roger Apart from Tortuga/Hispaniola and Jamaica, buccaneer havens include New Providence in the Bahamas, St. Croix, Curaçao, and Danish St. Thomas. Many buccaneers also find temporary homes in the Bay of Campeche and the Bay of Honduras, where they work as logwood cutters from around 1670. Eventually, however, the importance of the buccaneers for the colonial struggle in the Caribbean wanes. Christopher Hill succinctly sums up the situation in the late 17th century: "In the short run buccaneering may have been a convenient investment for big planters. But in the long run the buccaneers were a nuisance, expendable once the Caribbean was policed."34 The Dutch are the first to officially abandon privateering with the Treaty of The Hague in 1673. The English follow suite with the Treaty of Windsor in 1680, and—after a last ill-fated employment of buccaneer forces in the attack on Cartanega in 1697—the French finally complete the official withdrawal from privateering with the Treaty of Ryswick. As the 18th century begins, the buccaneers are gone. Their legacy, however, remains. As J.H. Parry and P.M. Sherlock contend: "At no other time in Western history can a few thousand desperadoes have created a reign of terror over so vast an area, or have exercised so great and so continuous an influence upon the policy of civilised states."35 c. 1690–1700: As the buccaneers disappear, the "pirates proper" arise. Many former buccaneers have little interest in a settled existence and intend to further secure their economic survival by raiding. Since official licenses are increasingly harder to come by, they turn to illegal raids—often on all ships, regardless which flags they fly. Stephen Snelders describes the transition thus: "In the struggle for dominance in the seventeenth century, the Brotherhood had played its role in the grey border zone between sanctioned privateering and outright piracy. In the golden age its successors were relegated to a black zone, outlawed by all nations."36 In the mid-1690s, the successful pirate voyages into the Indian Ocean by Henry Every and Thomas Tew, both of whom get away rich and unharmed (at least initially—Tew dies during his second voyage), help provide "a new role-model for the whole fraternity of seagoing mercenaries"37 and incite a pirate boom in those longitudes that also prompts the famed pirate settlements in Madagascar. They also give birth to a distinct, "transnational," pirate culture. As a result, "soon after the return of peace in 1697, there was Background 15 an explosion of piracy on a scale never seen before."38 In 1700, after an English navy vessel gives chase to a ship under the command of Captain Emanuel Wynn, there are first reports of pirates flying the Jolly Roger—the infamous black flag adorned by allegories of death (skull and crossbones, hour glasses, bleeding hearts, etc.). It soon comes to signify an affirmative pirate identity, indicating that "unlike the generations of pirates before them, who called themselves privateers—in truth, anything but pirate for fear of the death penalty that soon came with the name—the freebooters of the early eighteenth century said yes, we are criminals, we are pirates, we are that name."39 Accordingly, a war against the pirates is waged by the authorities: "The problem was tackled in a number of ways: by the introduction of legislation; by issuing pardons to pirates in the hope that they would abandon their lives of crime; by stepping up naval patrols in the worst affected areas; by promising rewards for the capture of pirates; and by the trial and execution of captured pirates."40 The most significant legal innovation is the 1700 Act for the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy, making it possible for a seven-person court of officials or naval officers to try pirates wherever such a court is able to assemble, thus making transfers back to England unnecessary. 1701–1713: The War of the Spanish Succession brings a relief from unlicensed piracy as it produces a new need for privateers. With the big buccaneer communities dissolved, many pirates return to raiding under national flags. As Peter Earle puts it: "The pirates became patriots again."41 1713–1722: With the end of the war, piracy reemerges. Hundreds of demobilized soldiers fill the pirates' ranks. While the navy enlisted more than 53,000 men in 1703, the number dwindles to 13,430 in 1715.42 A year later, Caribbean piracy reaches previously unknown heights with New Providence, Bahamas, as its headquarters. The island loses its prominent role in 1718, however, with the arrival of British governor Woodes Rogers. The arrival of Rogers—himself a former privateer—is part of a British government design to curb piracy. The plan also includes the offer of a pardon and the dispatching of three warships—something to "demonstrate to a wise pirate that the days of their 'very pleasant' way of life were numbered."43 While some of the New Providence pirates accept the pardon and help Rogers turn New Providence into a stable, "lawful" colony, others debark, vowing not to bow to any government authority and waging war on the whole 16 Life Under the Jolly Roger world instead. "From this point onwards the only pirates were those who explicitly rejected the state and its laws and declared themselves in open war against it,"44 as the anonymous authors of "Pirate Utopias," an article in the British anarchist journal Do or Die put it. Paul Galvin describes the situation with the following words: True outlaws working the fringe of a closing maritime frontier, these pirates owed allegiance to none but themselves and preyed upon the shipping of any nation, whether Spanish, English, French or Dutch. Consequently, unlike their buccaneer forebears, they enjoyed no cloak of legitimacy from any government (though many a colonial governor colluded in trafficking their spoils) and were therefore doomed to swift eradication.45 Once more, the pirates venture into the Indian Ocean, now also raiding along the west coast of Africa, where many new slaving posts have been established. The route between the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean via West Africa and Madagascar soon becomes known as the Pirate Round. This marks the strongest period of golden age piracy, "a decade or so of maritime hoodlumism set loose under the japing countenance of the Jolly Roger."46 It is the time of the best known pirate captains, Blackbeard, John "Calico Jack" Rackam, and Bartholomew Roberts, and of popular figures like Anne Bonny and Mary Read. According to David Cordingly, pirate activity reaches its peak around 1720 with an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 pirates operating in the Caribbean and North America.47 The heyday of piracy's golden age does not last very long, however. Angus Konstam, from the non-radical strain of pirate historians, concludes somewhat complacently: "The worst of these pirate excesses was limited to an eight-year period, from 1714 until 1722, so the true golden age cannot even be called a 'golden decade.'"48 In the words of Marcus Rediker, with the killing of the period's most successful pirate captain, Bartholomew Roberts, and the subsequent capture of most of his crew in 1722, the golden age "turned crimson."49 These events have drawn self-satisfied commentary: "The complete destruction of Bartholomew Roberts and his gang, much the strongest pirate combine at sea, was a devastating blow to the pirate community as a whole. It was rather humiliating that the two well-gunned, well-manned pirate ships should Background 17 surrender so pusillanimously without a single royal sailor being killed in either action."50 1722–1726: A last, more desperate generation of golden age pirates tries to keep the Jolly Roger alive even after "the war against the pirates was virtually won."51 The tide, of course, has changed and "the years 1722–26 were a time when pirates fought less for booty than for their very survival."52 Peter Earle draws the following picture: Getting on for a thousand pirates had been killed or captured on their ships or in attempts to escape ashore. Many hundreds of others had been pardoned or had crept ashore in haunts such as the Virgin Islands, the Bay Islands of Honduras, the Mosquito Coast, Madagascar or West Africa where many former pirates were said to be living among the natives. Many hundreds more must have died of the diseases prevalent in West African and West Indian waters, for mortality was likely to have been higher in the densely packed and very unhygienic pirate ships than those of the Royal Navy who lost well over a thousand men to disease in this campaign. Such destruction and dispersal meant that there were not many pirates left at sea, less than two hundred according to one estimate, most of them in gangs led either by Lowe or by former consorts or subordinates of his, such as Spriggs, Cooper, Lyne, and Shipton. These last remaining pirate captains and their men were to be hunted remorselessly by the navy, but they were to prove amazingly elusive. 53 The composition of the pirate crews changes as well. With many former buccaneers and privateers retired or killed, the majority of pirate crew members now comes from captured merchant vessels, with a fair number of sailors having been forced to join. 54 This leads both to a disintegration of the "pirate brotherhood," and to new increasingly violent tactics. Captain William Fly is the last notable pirate captain hanged in the Americas. He dies on the gallows in Boston in 1726. Frenchman Olivier La Buse meets the same fate in the Indian Ocean on the French island of Bourbon (today Réunion) in 1730. His death effectively ends the golden age of piracy, its protagonists now "hunted down and, it may be said, exterminated."55 The most tangible expression of this extermination are numerous mass hangings of pirates. In 1718, thirty-one members of Stede Bonnet's crew are hanged 18 Life Under the Jolly Roger in Charleston, South Carolina. In May 1722, forty-one members of Mathew Luke's crew are hanged in Jamaica. In the same year, fifty-two members of Bartholomew Roberts' crew are hanged in West Africa. In July 1723, twentysix members of Captain Charles Harris' crew are hanged at Newport Harbor. All in all, "no fewer than 400, and probably 500–600 Anglo-American pirates were executed between 1716 and 1726."56 This contributes significantly to the decline of pirate numbers overall: "From the peak of 2,000 pirates in 1720, the numbers dropped to around 1,000 in 1723 and by 1726 there were no more than 200. The incidence of pirate attacks declined from forty to fifty in 1718 down to half a dozen in 1726."57 Peter Earle sums up the situation dryly: And so at last the golden age of piracy came to an end. The freedomand drink-loving pirates had their moment of fame, but in the long run the navy, the law, and the self-destructive nature of the pirates themselves ensured that piracy was not an occupation with very long life expectancy. Of the fifty-five pirate captains of this period whose fate has been determined—about two-thirds of the total number— twelve surrendered and lived out their lives in varying degrees of comfort or destitution, one retired in poverty to Madagascar, six were killed in action, four drowned in shipwrecks, four were shot by their own men, one shot himself and one was set adrift by his men in an open boat, and never heard of again. The remaining twenty-six were hanged, often under their own black flags, by the French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spaniards as well as by the British, in Africa and Antigua, Boston, the Bahamas and Brazil, Carolina, Curaçao and Cuba, London, Martinique, Rhode Island and the island of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean where Olivier La Buse, the last pirate of the golden age to be captured, was hanged on the beach in July 1730 'before a cheering crowd.'58 La Buse might have been hanged before a cheering crowd, yet his tombstone receives nightly offerings from secret admirers to this day. While Peter Earle might see this as hopeless romanticism, the practice proves the political complexity of the pirate legacy, a legacy this book attempts to investigate. Background 19 5 Finally, a short overview of those golden age pirate captains who will be referenced in the following chapters more frequently. The list is purely didactic and meant to function as a quick reference guide. It neither claims to be exhaustive nor to list the most notorious of the golden age pirate captains. In fact, some names, such as that of William Kidd will be conspicuously absent. According to the authorities, Kidd was a privateer-turned-pirate; according to Kidd himself, he was loyal to the crown and behaved within the confines of the law. Kidd was hanged in 1701 and his body displayed in chains on the banks of the River Thames for years. His story is crucial for analyzing the arbitrary legal borders between privateering and pirating, yet I do not consider it of particular concern for the questions discussed in this book. For everyone interested in Kidd's history, Robert C. Ritchie's Captain Kidd and the War against the Pirates comes highly recommended. Other pirate aficionado household names that will be missing are those of John "Calico Jack" Rackam—who mainly rose to fame as Anne Bonny's lover—and of the unconventional "gentleman pirate" Stede Bonnet. Again, despite the undeniable entertainment value of their biographies, their exploits will not play a significant role in the following chapters. The focus on pirate captains—i.e. on individual "big men" rather than pirate communities—may appear ironic in a radical context that likes to stress the egalitarian and democratic character of golden age pirate communities. At the same time, the historical sources pay so much attention to pirate captains that it is hard not to employ them as a useful frame of reference. This, however, should not lead to a false impression concerning the primary protagonists: they remain decidedly the common pirate sailors. Thomas Tew: Embarked on a privateering mission against the French from Rhode Island in 1692. Soon convinced his crew to sail to the Indian Ocean on their own account instead. A huge Indian prize was taken there in 1693 and the sailors came back to America as rich men. Tew embarked on another journey a couple of years later, but this time he was met with a grisly fate after attacking a ship belonging to the Great Mogul. In the graphic description of Captain Johnson, "a shot carried away the rim of Tew's belly, who held his 20 Life Under the Jolly Roger bowels with his hands some small space [before] he dropped."59 Henry Every (Avery): After lack of payment, Every led a mutiny among English privateers in the Spanish service in 1694 and sailed for the Indian Ocean. A year later he took an enormous prize in the Red Sea, the merchant ship Ganj-i-sawai. The Ganj-i-sawai belonged to the Great Mogul, and given the good relations between the Mogul and the English, as well as England's investment in Indian trade, the attack undermined English interests and was hence pivotal for the history of golden age piracy. Every escaped capture and punishment and rose into legend, imagined to be living in luxury on Madagascar. Novels and plays were dedicated to his name. In reality, he died a pauper in England after being cheated by Bristol merchants, which in Philip Gosse's version of the story made him realize "that there were pirates on land as well as at sea."60 Emanuel Wynn: French pirate captain who flew the first documented Jolly Roger, the black pirate flag, while chased by an English navy ship off the Cape Verde Islands in 1700. Captain Misson: An almost certainly fictional French captain who founded a utopian community by the name of Libertalia in Madagascar, soon destroyed by Madagascan natives. Samuel Bellamy: According to Gosse, a "pirate, socialist, orator."61 Captain Johnson contributes some of the politically most conscious quotes of all golden age pirate captains to Bellamy in the second volume of A General History. Edward Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard: Possibly the most legendary of the golden age pirate captains. According to Edward Lucie-Smith "full of strange freaks,"62 and famously described by Johnson: [His] beard was black, which he suffered to grow of an extravagant length; as to breadth, it came up to his eyes. He was accustomed to twist it with ribbons, in small tails … and turn them about the ears. In time of action he wore a sling over his shoulders, with three brace of pistols, hanging in holsters, like bandoliers; and stuck lighted matches under his hat, which, appearing on each side of his face, his eyes naturally looking fierce and wild, made him altogether such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell to look more frightful.63 Background 21 Killed in battle against navy forces along the North Carolina coast in 1718. Charles Vane: Famous pirate captain during the New Providence heyday. Defiantly left the island one morning after the arrival of the new governor Woodes Rogers by slipping out of the harbour while firing at Rogers' ship. Hanged in Jamaica in 1721. Bartholomew Roberts: Though not as sensational as Blackbeard, clearly the most successful of the golden age pirates. Elected captain of a pirate crew only a few weeks after he was conscripted from a taken slave ship, Roberts led his crew for four years (an exceptionally long time for a pirate captain during the golden age) and took reputedly over 400 prizes. His death in 1722 and the subsequent defeat and imprisonment of almost all of his crew (fifty-two of whom were executed) is considered a decisive moment in the demise of golden age piracy. Edward Low: Possibly the best known captain of the golden age's final phase, gaining a reputation for particular cruelty. Active in the Caribbean, along the North American coast and around the Azores in 1722/23, he suddenly vanished, his fate remaining unresolved to this day. According to Captain Johnson, "the best information we could receive, would be, that he and all his crew were at the bottom of the sea."64 Nathaniel North: Bermuda-born, well-educated, unconventional pirate who sailed to Madagascar around 1720 and spent the last years of his life among a community of Europeans apparently deeply entrenched in local politics. Eventually killed by Madagascan natives in his sleep. Christopher Condent: English pirate captain whose crew took a huge prize in the Indian Ocean in 1720. Pardoned by the French colonial authorities off the island of Bourbon (Réunion), Condent later became a wealthy merchant in Saint-Malo. John Taylor: Took one of the biggest prizes in pirate history from the richly laden and storm-damaged Portuguese merchant ship Nostra Senhora de Cabo off Bourbon in 1721. Retired into service in the Spanish navy fleet. Olivier La Buse: Taylor's partner in the coup at Bourbon; remained at large in the Indian Ocean until hanged in 1730. 22 2. "Enemy of His Own Civilization" An Ethnography of Golden Age Piracy There seems to be wide agreement among scholars that the golden age pirate community constituted a special—and possibly unique—cultural phenomenon. Stephen Snelders speaks of "pirate customs,"1 "a shared pirate culture,"2 "an alternative society with alternative rules,"3 and even of "an unbroken social tradition of piracy with clear forms of organization, a repertoire of behavior, and a developed code of ethics."4 He concludes that "the pirates were clearly very conscious of their traditions, as is shown by their adaptation of common symbolic forms and their regard for elder representatives of their kind."5 The authors of "Pirate Utopias" identify "a specifically 'pirate consciousness,'" a "'pirate ideology,'" "a world of their own making," and "one community, with a common set of customs shared across the various ships."6 German scholar Heiner Treinen speaks of the pirates' "own world," 7 his compatriot Rüdiger Haude of a "common pirate culture,"8 and Frank Sherry of an "original and lurid style of life"9 as well as a "separate community in the world."10 Some observers stress the distance that the golden age pirates put between themselves and their cultures of origin. Peter Lamborn Wilson even calls "the pirate … first and foremost the enemy of his own civilization."11 For Marcus Rediker, too, "everything pirates did reflected their deep alienation from most aspects of European society."12 As a consequence, "pirates constructed their own social order in defiant contradistinction to the ways of the world they had left behind,"13 and created—borrowing the title of a Christopher Hill book—a "world turned upside down"14 with "common symbols and standards of conduct,"15 set "apart from the dictates of 24 Life Under the Jolly Roger mercantile and imperial authority."16 The fact that buccaneers allegedly shed their Christian names by joining the buccaneer communities would only confirm this.17 If the world and culture of the Caribbean buccaneers and pirates was indeed so distinct, it might be worthwhile to attempt an ethnography of golden age piracy, i.e. trying to recognize patterns of the community's social, political, and economic life. Obviously, such an attempt must remain tentative due to lack of reliable data and because it is uncharted terrain. However, even if little more can be done than to stimulate discussion, such an endeavor promises to aid the study of our political relations to golden age piracy. The following principles laid out by David Graeber in Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology serve as useful guidelines for this chapter: When one carries out an ethnography, one observes what people do, and then tries to tease out the hidden symbolic, moral, or pragmatic logics that underlie their actions; one tries to get at the way people's habits and actions makes sense in ways that they are not themselves completely aware of. One obvious role for a radical intellectual is to do precisely that: to look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are (already) doing, and then offer those ideas back, not as prescriptions, but as contributions, possibilities—as gifts … Such a project would actually have to have two aspects, or moments if you like: one ethnographic, one utopian, suspended in a constant dialogue.18 2.1. "From the Sea": Maritime Nomads The association between pirates and nomads appears evident: after all, pirates lack a home, are not settled and take to roaming. In this sense, it seems likely that a comparative study of golden age piracy and nomadism may shed light on the socio-cultural circumstances of pirate life. However, we have to be cautious. Many ethnologists would refuse to include marauding seafarers into their definition of nomadism. A. M. Khazanov writes in his seminal Nomads and The Outside World: In my view … the term 'nomads' is not applicable to other mobile groups, whether ethnic-professional groups such as gypsies, or the "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 25 so-called 'maritime nomads' of Southeast Asia, or shifting horticulturalists, or certain groups of workers in contemporary industrial societies (so-called industrial mobility). Consequently, hunters and gatherers who do not lead a sedentary way of life are best described by the term 'wandering' … and mobile extensive pastoralists by the term 'nomadic.'1 Khazanov concedes, however, that "some scholars have defined nomads as all those leading a mobile way of life independent of its economic specificity." 2 If we apply this latter definition, the golden age pirates—a fluctuating community of marauding bands ranging in number from a few dozen members to a maximum of about 200 without a secure home base—would definitely belong to the wider community of nomads. The clearest expression of the fact that the golden age pirates themselves—who "knew themselves to be homeless and cut off from their countries of origin"3—understood their community to be nomadic was the common pirate response to enquiries about where they came from: From the Seas.4 In fact, the early buccaneers of Hispaniola already revealed nomadic tendencies. "According to the French missionary Abbé du Tertre, 'they were without any habitation or fixed abode, but rendezvoused where the animals were to be found.'"5 How radically these tendencies expressed themselves during the golden age of piracy is best described by David Cordingly: Apart from the obvious desire to avoid North America in winter, and a sensible use of the trade winds when crossing the Atlantic, there was no consistency in the planning and execution of most voyages. Indeed, there was very little forward planning by any of the pirate crews. The democratic nature of the pirate community meant that a vote must be taken by the entire crew before the destination of the next voyage could be agreed on, and this inevitably led to many decisions being made on the spur of the moment. A study of the tracks of the pirate ships shows many zig-zagging all over the place without apparent reason.6 One aspect of the golden age pirates' zig-zagging nomadism is the complete lack of a productive economy. Pastoralists, for example, develop patterns of movement that guarantee grazing opportunities for their herds, while the 26 Life Under the Jolly Roger pirates' movements are bound to the availability of "prey." In this respect, the nomadic culture they most closely resemble in terms of economics is that of hunters and gatherers. Raiding merchant ships—and the occasional onshore community or trading post—might be a peculiar way of hunting and gathering, of course, but a structurally similar one. Golden age pirates share with hunters and gatherers a "nomadism required by the foraging economy." 7 The dependency on prey in the form of European merchant ships reveals another structural similarity between golden age pirates and other nomads, namely their dependency on the outside world. As Khazanov explains: "Nomads could never exist on their own without the outside world and its non-nomadic societies, with their different economic systems. Indeed, a nomadic society could only function while the outside world not only existed but also allowed for those reactions from it … which ensured that the nomads remained nomads."8 A historian of the Caribbean realm confirms that this is true for the buccaneers as well, who he calls "essentially stateless persons who lived comfortably by commerce with the settled communities of European colonists."9 The structural similarities between golden age pirates and other nomadic societies are not only restricted to economic matters, however. They are also reflected in the socio-political realm. As Marcus Rediker points out, "egalitarian forms of social organization and social relations have been commonplace among history's nomadic peoples."10 Particularly interesting parallels can be drawn to nomads who inhabit the same natural environment as the golden age pirates, namely the sea, or, more specifically, "an extensive and diversified world of islands."11 The so-called sea nomads of Southeast Asia are even known to occasionally employ sea robbery as a means of income. As David E. Sopher explains in his study The Sea Nomads: Three conditions appear to govern the incidence of piracy: first, the existence of productive, but defenceless coast communities or the existence of regular sea trade along regular routes; second, a fluid, if not quite nomadic, way of life, in which tribal warfare, feuds and raiding are accepted institutions—a way of life which would foster piracy; third, superior striking power and speed on the part of the piratical "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 27 force together with a degree of invulnerability and immunity in its own home.12 If by "in its own home" we understand retreats like Hispaniola or Tortuga, or temporary shelters and safe havens, this description applies practically word for word to the Caribbean buccaneers and pirates. It is not surprising that the myth of the nomad (a myth that "may be even older than the myth of the 'noble savage'"13) echoes the myth of the pirate in a striking fashion. As A. M. Khazanov writes: A stereotyped view of nomads has arisen in which their real or imaginary freedom and political independence almost occupy pride of place. Moreover, despite its poverty and other drawbacks, nomadic life is thought by nomads themselves and by many onlookers to have one important advantage, which was defined by A.C. Pigou at the beginning of the century as 'quality of life.'14 2.2. "Smooth" vs. "Striated": The Question of Space If it is true "that the nomads have no history [but only] a geography,"1 then the question of space deserves particular attention. In the case of Caribbean piracy, this specifically means the sea. Its significance can hardly be overrated. All of Caribbean society has always been intrinsically linked to it: The sea led men to the West Indies, and away from them. A unique fact about the Caribbee islands was that all the inhabitants—Caribs, Arawaks, white planters, merchants, and servants, and black slaves— had arrived by sea in very recent times. To these islands, with their motley populations, merchants and factors came and went with some regularity; they brought craftsmen, servants, and slaves to the West Indies. Communication from one island to another by means of small sloops was both facilitated and obstructed by the incessant trade winds; Barbados lay so far eastward of the Leeward Islands that very little exchange took place. All life, everywhere, depended on wooden hulls: in the outward passage they carried food and supplies of all kinds, and wines from Madeira and the Canaries; on the homeward voyage they took back the island staples and a few passengers. 2 28 Life Under the Jolly Roger This meant ideal conditions for aspiring pirates: "While petty thuggery and brigandage might be easily subdued close to home, these far-flung new trades routes offered a tempting outlet for an entirely different breed of marauder, a mobile and elusive adventurer who could sail to the far ends of the earth, and seek his fortune amid its most lawless frontiers."3 In general, too, the sea has long been a symbol of freedom, a free space par excellence. Rüdiger Haude calls it "the unlimited, unpredictable space, the negation of everything 'national.'"4 Marcus Rediker adds: "'The vast ocean cannot be possessed.' It was a commons, a place to be used by many, including the sailor who dared to turn pirate."5 This was especially true as long as those who traveled the seas were dependent on the elements: "The source of power that took them from one haven to the next was everywhere and always available, since it was only the wind."6 In the terminology of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the sea constitutes a smooth space, "perhaps the principal among smooth spaces, the hydraulic model par excellence." 7 As they explain: "Smooth space is a field without conduits or channels. A field, a heterogeneous smooth space, is wedded to a very particular type of multiplicity: non-metric, acentered, rhizomatic multiplicities which occupy space without 'counting' it."8 In simpler words, the smooth space is a space for creating self-determined, creative, "free" forms of life. Here, the nomads reach their full potential as raiders: "With practical skill a nomad band can strike, steal, and disappear beyond hope of pursuit in the great waste, fading away without trace … "9 The supplement to the open space of the sea were the pirates' coastal refuges, the "many small inlets, lagoons and harbours, … solitary islands and keys."10 If we stick to the terminology of Deleuze and Guattari, we might call this a rhizomatic terrain since a rhizome is "open and connectable in all of its dimensions … it always has multiple entryways."11 All of the favorite operational areas of the pirates are described accordingly: "the Caribbean islands provided innumerable hiding places, secret coves and uncharted islands;"12 "the Gulf of Honduras and the Mosquito Coast [were] dotted with numerous small islands and protecting reefs, … creeks, lagoons and river-mouths;"13 "the American coast from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina, is a network of river estuaries, bays, inlets, and islands."14 These coastal labyrinths provided the pirates' natural onshore environment. "'As surely as spiders abound where there are nooks and crannies,' wrote Captain the Hon. Henry Keppel, "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 29 the great hunter of Oriental pirates in the nineteenth century, 'so have pirates sprung up wherever there is a nest of islands offering creeks and shallows, headlands, rocks and reefs—facilities in short for lurking, for surprise, for attack, for escape. '"15 Between the extremes of the wide open sea and the impenetrable coastal mazes of reefs, inlets, and river-mouths, the pirates were able to escape the wrath of the law for several decades.16 Eventually, however, the smooth space of the sea—and with it its coastal boundaries—became "striated," i.e. ordered, regulated, and controlled. This contributed significantly to the end of golden age piracy: The sea is … of all smooth spaces, the first one attempts were made to striate, to transform into a dependency of the land, with its fixed routes, constant directions, relative movements, a whole counterhydraulic of channels and conduits. One of the reasons for the hegemony of the West was the power … of its State apparatuses to striate the sea by combining technologies of the North and the Mediterranean and by annexing the Atlantic.17 The most tangible aspect of this annexation—or the striating process— was an increased navy presence. The number of permanently employed royal ships in the Americas rose from two in the 1670s to twenty-four by 1700,18 "by 1723, increased surveillance on the sea routes by the Royal Navy was severely limiting [the pirates'] freedom of operations,"19 and by 1724, "the world was becoming too small for a wanted pirate to be able to find a safe hiding place."20 This coincided with significant technological innovations. As David F. Marley explains: "Steam, advanced ballistics, telegraphic communications and other technological innovations meant that the advantage swung decisively to the professional services."21 Edward Lucie-Smith stresses the first in particular: "What put an end, in its classic form, to a crime which had existed since history began, was chiefly the coming of steam. Mechanical propulsion, which meant that the men who traveled the oceans were no longer at the mercy of the winds, also removed much of the danger they had hitherto felt from the man who made the wind his ally, and cast himself upon its mercy as the price of an irregular and ferocious independence."22 Robert C. Ritchie concludes: 30 Life Under the Jolly Roger Ultimately the buccaneers' success in expanding their geographic range aroused the forces of order and brought the pirates into collision with the demands of empire. The struggle that ensued was lopsided: the resources mobilized by the rising imperial states far exceeded those of the pirates. [This ends a time] when the world was younger, when it was possible for a group of men to seize a ship and sail to the end of the world seeking their fortune, while living in a consensual society free of the constraints that dominated their lives at home. 23 2.3. Pirate Captains and Indian Chiefs: Remembering Pierre Clastres The fact that many of the historical accounts and popular images of piracy focus on pirate captains often leads to notions of men with huge power and influence—something they might have never had. In the 1970s, radical French anthropologist Pierre Clastres described the chief 's role in "stateless" Indian societies1 in his essay "Exchange and Power: Philosophy of the Indian Chieftainship."2 Clastres reached the controversial conclusion that "the most notable characteristic of the Indian chief consists of his almost complete lack of authority."3 He stresses in particular the following aspects: 1. The chief is elected and replaceable. 2. His power rests on merit only. 3. His power is controlled by the community. 4. He is a peacemaker. 5. He is generous with his possessions. 6. He is a good orator. 7. He is an able leader in war. This reveals startling parallels to the role of the pirate captain. The chief is elected and replaceable: There is plenty of evidence that this was true for pirate captains. Even non-radical pirate historians concede that "there was an admirable tradition of democracy that enabled crews to vote their captains in and out of office."4 Captain Johnson's A General History of the Pirates contains several passages that describe the election of new pirate captains, maybe most notably that of Bartholomew Roberts. 5 Philip Gosse claims that "it is on record that one ship had elected thirteen different commanders in a few months."6 The election—or dismissal—of captains was already practiced among buccaneer crews. Basil Ringrose provides a credible first-hand account of the way in which Captain Bartholomew Sharp, deemed inept by many of his crew, is replaced by John Watling: "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 31 On Thursday, January 6th, our differences being now grown to a great height, the mutineers made a new election of another person to be our chief captain and commander, by virtue whereof they deposed Captain Sharp, whom they protested they would obey no longer. They chose thereof one of our company, whose name was John Watling, to command in chief, he having been an old privateer, and gained the esteem of being a stout seaman. The election being made, all the rest were forced to give their assent to it, and Captain Sharp gave over his command, whereupon they immediately made articles with Watling, and signed them.7 His power rests on merit only: Frank Sherry notes that "for the most part pirates chose their captains on the basis of merit. Because of the dangers inherent in their calling, they could not afford to apply any criterion other than ability to the selection of their leaders."8 His power is controlled by the community: Stephen Snelders writes that "regardless of how pistol-proof, bold, terrifying, or beloved a pirate captain might be, all hierarchy and authoritarianism were constantly questioned by the Brethren. Their transmitted customs and the fleeting and evanescent character of their lives severely limited, and in the end nullified, any attempt by authority to assert itself."9 This sounds very much like the "diffuse, collective mechanisms" that—according to Deleuze and Guattari who included a "Homage to Pierre Clastres" in their book A Thousand Plateaus—"prevent a chief from becoming … a man of State."10 He is a peacemaker: Several passages in Captain Johnson's History of the Pirates echo this responsibility. In Johnson's account of Captain North, for example, the captain's peacemaking abilities are even extended to the Madagascan natives: "North deciding their disputes not seldom, with that impartiality and strict regard to distributive justice (for he was allowed by all, a man of admirable good natural parts) that he ever sent away even the party who was cast, satisfied with the reason and content with the equity of his decisions."11 Compare this description to the one by Clastres: The chief is responsible for maintaining peace and harmony in the group. He must appease quarrels and settle disputes—not by employing a force he does not possess and which would not be acknowledged 32 Life Under the Jolly Roger in any case, but by relying solely on the strength of his prestige, his fairness, and his verbal ability. More than a judge who passes sentence, he is an arbiter who seeks to reconcile.12 He is generous with his possessions: The pirate captain was often granted a larger part of the booty than ordinary crew members. However, this did not necessarily help him amass greater riches. In fact, due to possessing more, he was also expected to give and share more. Captain Johnson illustrates this in connection with Bartholomew Roberts, arguably one of the pirate captains who exerted a more than average amount of authority over his crew: "They separate for his use the great cabin, and sometimes vote him small parcels of plate and china (for it may be noted that Roberts drank his tea constantly) but then every man, as the humour takes him, seize a part of his victuals and drink, if they like it, without his offering to find fault or contest it."13 It was the captain's responsibility to store wealth for times of need. Some anthropologists have identified this as an almost universal feature among elected leaders of so-called primitive societies. Marshall Sahlins contends that "big-men and chiefs are compelled to relieve shortages among the people,"14 and Boris Malinowski goes as far as saying that "the chief, everywhere, acts as a tribal banker, collecting food, storing it, and protecting it, and then using it for the benefit of the whole community."15 According to Pierre Clastres, "this obligation to give, to which the chief is bound, is experienced by the Indians as a kind of right to subject him to a continuous looting. And if the unfortunate leader tries to check this flight of gifts, he is immediately shorn of all prestige and power."16 He is a good orator: Even if the significance of oratory was probably much less pronounced in pirate than in Indian communities (Clastres suggests that Indian chiefs "gratify the people of his group with an edifying discourse … every day, either at dawn or sunset"17—something hardly imaginable for pirate captains), Johnson's General History knows many captains who excel in the art of oratory, most notably Saul Bellamy. He is an able leader in war: In one of the most regularly cited passages of the General History, Captain Johnson writes that during military engagements, the pirate captain's power "is absolute and uncontrollable, by their own laws, viz., in fighting, chasing, or being chased."18 This echoes the following description by Clastres: "During military expeditions the war chief "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 33 commands a substantial amount of power—at times absolute—over the group of warriors. … But the conjunction of power and coercion ends as soon as the group returns to its normal internal life."19 In light of all this, it is a curious play of words when Heiner Treinen speaks of pirate captains as "Piratenhäuptlinge" in a 1981 essay—Häuptling being an antiquated German term for Indian chief.20 While Clastres declares the Indian chief to be "a kind of prisoner in a space which the tribe does not let him leave,"21 Captain Johnson outlines the relationship between the pirate crews and their captains with the famous words: "They only permit him to be captain on the condition that they may be captain over him." 22 And while Clastres calls the Indian chief "the effective instrument of his society," 23 Rediker calls the pirate captain "the creature of his crew."24 Like Clastres in his analysis, pirate historians describe "a chieftainship without authority"25 in which the chief "has no instituted weapon other than his prestige, no other means of persuasion, no other rule than his sense of the group's desires" and is "more like a leader or a star than a man of power … always in danger of being disavowed, abandoned by his people."26 The parallels reach even further,27 to the point where the analysis of Indian chiefdom implies social mechanisms against state formation. This is of significant importance for the political investigation of golden age pirate communities. It is worth quoting Clastres once more at length: Hence there is no king in the tribe, but a chief who is not a chief of State. What does that imply? Simply that the chief has no authority at his disposal, no power of coercion, no means of giving an order. The chief is not a commander; the people of the tribe are under no obligation to obey. The space of the chieftainship is not the locus of power, and the 'profile' of the primitive chief in no way foreshadows that of a future despot. There is nothing about the chieftainship that suggests the State apparatus derived from it.28 The biggest danger in the dependency of the chief 's power on his warring abilities lies in his desire for war as a way to consolidate his power. In Clastres' words, "it occasionally happens that a chief tries to play the chief:29 Occasionally a chief … attempts to put his personal interest ahead of the collective interest. Reversing the normal relationship that 34 Life Under the Jolly Roger determines the leader as a means in the service of a socially defined end, he tries to make society into the means for achieving a purely private end: the tribe in the service of the chief and no longer the chief in the service of the tribe. If it 'worked,' then he would have found the birthplace of political power, as force and violence; we would have the first incarnation, the minimal form of the State. But it never works. 30 There were certainly some pirate captains who tried to "play the chief." Most famous is the tale of Blackbeard who justified shooting and crippling a crew member for no apparent reason with the remark that "if he did not now and then kill one of them, they would forget who he was."31 Stephen Snelders also reckons that "toward the end of his career, [Captain] Davis, and his most important lieutenants seem to have lost some of their egalitarian character,"32 while the reaction of Nathaniel North to being elected captain, as related by Captain Johnson, does not exactly evoke the praised egalitarian character of the pirate community either: "The ceremony is ended with an invitation from the captain to such he thinks fit to have dine with him."33 The same can be said for Bartholomew Roberts—according to David Cordingly, a "man with a natural flair for leadership"34 —who allegedly accepted his role as captain by saying that "since he had dipped his hands in muddy water, and must be a pirate, it was better being a commander than a common man."35 As in Captain David's case (Roberts' predecessor on the Rover), a group of crew members under Roberts' command apparently also established a privileged vanguard, unattractively named the House of Lords. 36 Whether these pirate captains and their cronies succeeded in "playing the chief " or not, is hard to tell, as their lives were cut short. 2.4. Potlatches, Zero-Production, and Parasitism: Pirate Economy The economy of the golden age pirates combines "primitive" and "criminal" features in a curious blend. Let us consider the former first. Pirate Economy as "Primitive" Economy Work Pirate historians across the political spectrum seem to agree that work was not high on the agenda of Caribbean buccaneers and pirates. Frank Sherry "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 35 states that "the crew of a pirate ship worked only as much as was necessary,"1 while Peter Earle suggests that "less work because of large crews was … one of the attractions of service on a pirate ship."2 David Cordingly expands on the latter point: The daily routine on a pirate ship was considerably easier than life on a merchantman because the crew were not driven by owners and captains to make the fastest possible passage with the biggest possible cargo, and because the pirates operated with very much larger crews. The typical crew of a merchantman of a hundred tons was around twelve men. A pirate ship of similar size would frequently have a crew of eighty or more. 3 Contemporaneous accounts seem to confirm the buccaneers' and pirates' lack of enthusiasm for work. Exquemelin wrote about the buccaneers that, "so long as they had cash to spend, it was difficult to persuade them to the sea,"4 while "Père Labat, a priest who sailed with the flibustiers on their raids into the South Sea … attributed their preference for the use of barques or sloops, vessels with a simple sail-rig that called for a minimum of seamanship, 'to a dislike of work in the first place.'"5 The parallels to so-called primitive societies are obvious. Clastres states candidly that "the Indian devoted very little time to what is called work,"6 and explains further: "Primitive societies are, as Lizot writes with regard to the Yanomami, societies characterized by the rejection of work: 'The Yanomamis' contempt for work and their disinterest in technological progress per se are beyond question.' The first leisure societies, the first affluent societies, according to M. Sahlins' apt and playful expression." 7 Sahlins himself writes: "Tribal people work less than we do, as well as less regularly. They probably also sleep more in the daytime. … Working conditions are hardly ideal, and perhaps tribesmen ought to have a union [but] about the hours they needn't complain."8 Arguably, a highlight of the pirates' work was taking other ships, especially when we consider Stephen Snelders' description of pirate life as one in which "everything happened at once [after] nothing happened for whole days."9 This, once again, evokes images of a primitive economy as a "necessary cycle of extreme activity and total idleness."10 According to Douglas Botting, "pirates suffered prolonged agonies of boredom."11 In any case, the golden age pirate 36 Life Under the Jolly Roger was certainly a strong competitor to the hunter when it came to "the lowest grades in thermodynamics—less energy/capita/year."12 Non-Accumulation/Potlatch The above scenario confirms the buccaneers' and pirates' "penchant for living for the day."13 In direct relation to so-called primitive societies, "this means that once its needs are fully satisfied nothing could induce primitive society to produce more, that is, to alienate its time by working for no good reason when that time is available for idleness, play, warfare, or festivities."14 It also indicates "the determination to make productive activity agree with the satisfaction of needs. And nothing more."15 The fact that the buccaneers (and later the golden age pirates) displayed a similar attitude used to frustrate those who dedicated themselves to the economic advancement of the Caribbean colonies. Jean-Baptiste Ducasse, governor of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (founded in 1659 and comprising Hispaniola's western part—the modern-day Haiti), reportedly despaired in his anxiety about economic development, since this was a matter "which was absolutely indifferent to the Brothers of the Coast."16 Contrary to popular belief, most buccaneers or pirates never demonstrated a big interest in accumulating wealth. It is probably going too far to cite them as an example of Marshall Sahlins' original affluent society and its Zen approach of desiring little (some—if distant—dreams of material riches must have haunted most buccaneers and pirates who were, after all, subjects of an early capitalist society), but there certainly existed a common behavioral trait that anthropologists call prodigality: "the inclination to consume at once all stocks on hand."17 The buccaneers' and pirates' economic wastefulness is indeed legendary. The eye-witness Exquemelin reports how the buccaneers "spend with great liberality, giving themselves freely to all manner of vices and debauchery."18 He writes that "according to their custom [they] wasted in a few days in taverns all they had gained … Such of these pirates are found who will spend two or three thousand pieces of eight in one night, not leaving themselves peradventure a good shirt to wear in the morning."19 Likewise: "They squander in a month all the money which has taken them a year or eighteen months to earn."20 Sometimes the riches didn't even last until "the crew went ashore and indulged in an orgy of riotous living,"21 as Cordingly and Falconer report: "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 37 "After plundering Maracaibo in 1625 L'Ollonais, the French buccaneer, divided the spoils so that each man received one hundred pieces of eight. He and his men returned to Tortuga and 'in three weeks they had scarce any money left them, having spent it all in things of little value or at play of cards and dice.'"22 Maurice Besson sums up the buccaneers' attitude towards gathering riches convincingly: "In a few hours, the booty was dissipated on gambling, woman and drink. Without a country, with no home, with no care for the future, the flibustiers fought, not to enrich themselves, not so that one day they might rest upon their laurels, with a comfortable fortune; they fought to conquer, to pillage, and to make the best of what the moment offered."23 The assessments of other pirate researchers ring equally true: Ulrike Klausmann and Marion Meinzerin suggest that "these pirates did not view plundering as a means to becoming wealthy. Their goal instead was to attain booty as quickly as possible, at a minimum expense of labour, so as to squander it just as quickly. … 'Why save, when tomorrow we could be dead?' That was their motto."24 Chris Land confirms this: "in this sense 'booty' was incorporated into the way of life the pirates were developing, rather than an end goal to which that life was subordinated."25 Finally, Stephen Snelders even offers a Marxist analysis of the buccaneers' and pirates' spending habits: "A pirate kept the surplus value of his work for himself and his comrades, to spend on the good things of life."26 Once again, the similarities to so-called primitive economies are striking: We are accustomed, because of the nature of our own economy, to think that human beings have a 'natural propensity to truck and barter,' and that economic relations among individuals or groups are characterized by 'economizing,' by 'maximizing' the results of effort, by 'selling dear and buying cheap.' Primitive peoples do none of these things, however; in fact, most of the time it would seem that they do the opposite. They 'give things away,' they admire generosity, they expect hospitality, they punish thrift as selfishness. 27 Gustavo Martin-Fragachan tells us that the Taino, the Indians who mainly (or exclusively) populated the island of Hispaniola at the time of Columbus' arrival, celebrated "large festivals … in part, to consume all the excess that had been produced, in a phenomenon that reminds us of the potlatch so well known to anthropologists and ethnologists."28 The Taino culture was 38 Life Under the Jolly Roger reportedly extinct by the mid-1500s, but it does not seem too far-fetched to see a continuation of potlatch-like rituals in the behavior of the region's buccaneers and pirates. For some radical authors, the golden age pirates "consciously chose a nonaccumulative life."29 If there is any truth to this claim, then Silver, one of the pirate girls in Kathy Acker's Pussy, King of the Pirates, might indeed, against all common presumptions, express the true spirit of golden age piracy when rejecting her share in a chest of gold: "I'd rather go a-pirating … If me and my girls take all this treasure, the reign of girl piracy will stop, and I wouldn't have that happen."30 No Division or Alienation of Labor Since the daily work that had to be done by buccaneer and pirate communities (mainly the handling and maintenance of their ships) constituted no separate sphere of their existence, one could argue that labor as an autonomous aspect of life did not exist within the pirate community, and hence none of the alienation processes associated with it existed either. The same would be true for a division of labor since it is hard to divide something that does not exist. Here, too, one finds compelling parallels to "primitive" societies: It is difficult at any time to say just what actions of hunters and gatherers are economic or political or religious, or even artistic. This unspecialized characteristic of primitive society results in one especially important contrast to modern civilization. It means that an individual adult participates much more fully in every aspect of the culture than do the people of more complicated societies. 31 With this in mind, the social experiment of the golden age pirates did indeed throw a monkey wrench into the industrialization process. As Marshall Sahlins writes about societies who do not abide by this process: Work is not divorced from life. There is no 'job,' no time and place where one spends most of one's time not being oneself. Nor are work and life related as means to an end (as they often are for us): the former a necessary evil tolerated for the sake of the latter, 'living,' which is something to do after business hours, on your own time, if you have the energy. The Industrial Revolution split work from life. The reintegration has not yet been achieved. 32 "Enemy of His Own Civilization" 39 Self-Management Apart from the relative lack of work, the refusal to engage in accumulative practices, and the absence of a distinct labor sector and alienation processes, the golden age pirates' economy distinguished itself in another important way from the capitalist development that surrounded it: namely, the pirates controlled their own means of production. This is one of the aspects of golden age piracy that does indeed mark a break with the tradition of the privateering buccaneers. As Frank Sherry points out, while "privateer crews … were still only hired hands despite the fact that they received fair shares of their ship's plunder, pirates regarded themselves as self-employed, collective owners of their own ships."33 No Exploitation As there was no contradiction between means and forces of production, there was also no room for exploitation in the economic set-up of the golden age pirate communities either. Again, in contrast to the privateers who still paid a share of their

subset: commoncrawl