Publisher Description

An entrancing tale of piracy colored with gold, treachery and double-dealing (Portland Press Herald), Pulitzer Prize-finalist Colin Woodward's The Republic of Pirates is the historical biography of the exploits of infamous Caribbean buccaneers.

In the early eighteenth century, the Pirate Republic was home to some of the great pirate captains, including Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates -- former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves -- this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.

They cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, and severed Europe from its New World empires. For a brief, glorious period the Republic was a success as the pirates became heroes in the eyes of the people.

Drawing on extensive research in the archives of Britain and the Americas, award-winning author Colin Woodard tells the dramatic untold story of the Pirate Republic that shook the very foundations of the British and Spanish Empires and fanned the democratic sentiments that would one day drive the American revolution.

Back Cover

"It's a rollicking tale, filled with rich details of the lives of men who, for their own personal gain, challenged the spread of empires."--Times-Picayune (New Orleans) Captains like Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane rallied with their fellow pirates to create the "Flying Gang," thus establishing The Pirate Republic-- a crude, distinctive, and all-too-brief democracy in the Bahamas. Indentured servants became free, blacks and runaway slaves could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by vote.In cutting off trade routes, sacking slave ships, and severing Europe from its New World, the Pirate Republic shook the very foundations of imperialism and fanned democratic sentiments that would one day drive the American Revolution. They became heroes in the eyes of the people and, in this, their untold story, their glorious Republic lives again. "The Republic of the Pirates" is the ultimate in beach reading - breezy, colorful, and rich in history and action."--Christian Science Monitor"[A]n entrancing tale of piracy colored with gold, treachery and double-dealing."--Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram COLIN WOODARD is an award-winning journalist. The author of "The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier" and "Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas," he is also a foreign correspondent for "The Christian Science Monitor" and "The Chronicle of Higher Education." He lives in Portland, Maine. Contact him at

Flap

In the early eighteenth century a number of the great pirate captains joined forces, including Blackbeard, Black Sam Bellamy, and Charles Vane. This infamous "Flying Gang" was more than simply a band of thieves: Many of its members were sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves who turned to piracy as a revolt against the conditions they suffered on ships and plantations. Together they established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.

Author Biography

COLIN WOODARD is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and award-winning author of American Nations: A History of The Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier, and Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas. He is State & National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald, where he won a George Polk Award for his investigative reporting. His writing has appeared in Smithsonian, the Economist, the Washington Post, and many other national and international publications. He lives in midcoast Maine.

Table of Contents

Contents prologue The Golden Age of Piracy 1 chapter one The Legend (1696) 10 chapter two Going to Sea (1697-1702) 28 chapter three War (1702-1712) 52 chapter four Peace (1713-1715) 86 chapter five Pirates Gather (January-June 1716) 115 chapter six Brethren of the Coast (June 1716-March 1717) 144 chapter seven Bellamy (March-May 1717) 169 chapter eight Blackbeard (May-December 1717) 194 chapter nine Begging Pardon (December 1717-July 1718) 226 chapter ten Brinksmanship (July-September 1718) 262 chapter eleven Hunted (September 1718-March 1720) 282 epilogue Piracy's End (1720-1732) 311 acknowledgments 329 endnotes 333 index 371

Review

PRAISE FOR COLIN WOODARD "A tremendous reporter . . . and [a] strong, impassioned writer as well."--THE BOSTON GLOBE PRAISE FOR THE LOBSTER COAST "A beautifully considered history . . . Woodard's admiration for lobster culture is stirring . . . Mainers' feisty pluck remains undiminished in the face of obstacles."--NEWSDAY --

Long Description

Welcome to the Pirate Republic--the early-eighteenth-century home to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates--former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves--this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote. For a brief, glorious period the Pirate Republic was enormously successful. It cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, and severed Europe from its New World empires. Imperial authorities and wealthy shipowners denounced its residents as the enemies of mankind, but common people saw them as heroes. Colin Woodard tells the dramatic untold story of the Pirate Republic that shook the very foundations of the British and Spanish Empires and fanned the democratic sentiments that would one day drive the American Revolution.

Review Quote

"Woodard's book explains how this fragile democracy came about, and why the pirates who populated it were actually better suited for such organization than their legends would have us believe."--Alexandria Gazette-Packet

Excerpt from Book

chapter one The Legend 1696 The sloop arrived in the afternoon of April Fool''s Day 1696, swinging around the low, sandy expanse of Hog Island and into Nassau''s wide, dazzlingly blue harbor. At first, the villagers on the beach and the sailors in the harbor took little notice. Small and nondescript, this sloop was a familiar sight, a trading vessel from the nearby island of Eleuthera, fifty miles to the east. She came to Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, on a regular basis to trade salt and produce for cloth and sugar, and to get news brought in from England, Jamaica, and the Carolinas. The bystanders expected to see her crew drop anchor, load their goods into their longboat, and row toward the beach, as the capital had no wharves or piers. Later, their cargoes disposed of, the crew would go drinking in one of Nassau''s public houses, trading updates of the ongoing war, the movements of the infernal French, and cursing the absence of the Royal Navy. But not on this day. The sloop''s crew rowed ashore. Its captain, a local man familiar to all, jumped onto the beach, followed by several strangers. The latter wore unusual clothing: silks from India, perhaps, a kerchief in bright African patterns, headgear from Arabia, as rank and dirty as the cheap woolens worn by any common seaman. Those who came near enough to overhear their speech or peer into their tanned faces could tell they were English and Irish mariners not unlike those from other large ships that came from the far side of the Atlantic. The party made its way through the tiny village, a few dozen houses clustered along the shore in the shadow of a modest stone fortress. They crossed the newly cleared town square, passing the island''s humble wooden church, eventually arriving at the recently built home of Governor Nicholas Trott. They stood barefoot on the sun-baked sand and dirt, the fecund smell of the tropics filling their nostrils. Townspeople stopped to stare at the wild-looking men waiting on the governor''s doorstep. A servant opened the door and, upon exchanging a few words with the sloop''s master, rushed off to inform His Excellency that an urgent message had arrived. ~Nicholas Trott already had his hands full that morning. His colony was in trouble. England had been at war with France for eight years, disrupting the Bahamas'' trade and supply lines. Trott received a report that the French had captured the island of Exuma, 140 miles away, and were headed for Nassau with three warships and 320 men. Nassau had no warships at its disposal; in fact, no ships of the Royal Navy had passed this way in several years, there not being nearly enough of them to protect England''s sprawling empire. There was Fort Nassau, newly built from local stone, with twenty-eight cannon mounted on its ramparts, but with many settlers fleeing for the better protection of Jamaica, South Carolina, and Bermuda, Trott was finding it almost impossible to keep the structure manned. There were no more than seventy men left in town, including the elderly and disabled. Half the male population was serving guard duty at any one time in addition to attending to their usual occupations, which left many of them, in Trott''s words, "terribly fatigued." Trott knew that if the French attacked in force, there was little hope of holding Nassau and the rest of New Providence, the island on which his tiny capital was perched. These were Trott''s preoccupations when he received the merchant captain from Eleuthera and his mysterious companions. The strangers'' leader, Henry Adams, explained that he and his colleagues had recently arrived in the Bahamas aboard the Fancy, a private warship of forty-six guns and 113 men, and sought Trott''s permission to come into Nassau''s harbor. Adams handed over a letter from his captain, Henry Bridgeman, containing a most outlandish proposition. The Fancy, Bridgeman claimed, had just arrived in Eleuthera from the coast of Africa, where he had been slave trading without the permission of the Royal Africa Company, which owned a monopoly over such activities. Captain Bridgeman''s letter explained that the Fancy had run low on provisions and its crew was in need of shore leave. Were the governor to be so kind as to allow the ship into the harbor, he would be amply rewarded. Every member of the crew would give Trott a personal gift of twenty Spanish pieces of eight and two pieces of gold, with Bridgeman, as commander, kicking in a double share. The strangers were offering him a bribe worth some

Description for Bookstore

Published in hardcover by Harcourt, 2007, 978-0-15-101302-9 /0-15-101302-0

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