These are just a few of the names of European Pirates as we will also cover African Pirates in this series: Woodes Rogers Henry Every Thomas Tew Sir Henry Morgan Captain Kidd Black Beard Stede Bonnet Captain No Arms Jean Lafitte Red Legs Greaves Billy Bowlegs Montbars the Exterminator Blind Pew Borgne-Fesse (Captain Half Ass-transliteration) A Story of EUROPEAN PIRATES. Pirates of the European persuasion were the most common -because of the audacity and courage it would take for an African to take up that occupation during a time of racial slavery- in the colonial era and in the ancient world, however Africans in ratio to the Colonial period; were more prominent in the ancient period and participated in the occupation in both eras for vastly different reasons. Successful (Infamous) pirates will be noted here but there were so many unaccounted for whose names are not known because of many dynamics such as life expectancy, the prodigious volume of how many participated and the limited volume of those chronicling the day to day exploits of the unknown, undocumented and unannounced attempts across the world. The world was in chaos and produced fertile environment for injustice and piracy to thrive. Due to African enslavement Blacks could not participate in the pirate occupation as did whites, so this in effect limited how many did. However during and after the mass slaughtering and attempt to genocidally terminate the African Moors in 1492 from Spain many turned to piracy. They were freer on water. Pirates did not care what country, business, or person they were stealing from, they worked together and had codes of conduct that governed the business of piracy. It was “all for one, and one for all.” European pirates had runaway African Jews as crew or lieutenants in some cases. They worked in the new world and hid in the cays and peninsulas to escape, hide, or wait for prey. From the Black Sea to the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean Sea. They were as ubiquitous as the sand on the ocean floor. The first pirates in the New World were the Boucaniers, then came the Privateers who also turned to Piracy, and finally fresh pirates came into the fold as the New World became busier with more vessels and new colonies expanding. There came a point when it escalated out of control that different methods was used to stop the practice: pardoning them by kings and queens in order to share their wealth and more privateers. Privateers turning into pirates made the situation so ubiquitous and profitable that by 1830 piracy was on its way out. England, France, Spain, Holland, Portugal, and the United States of America all participated in piracy and fought many battles and wars against each other with innocent Africans caught in the middle of these hundreds of years atrocities. Pirates did not build their own ships they stole the ships of others and used them until they were filthy and if irreparable they would steal another. They also added to their fleet by stealing ships. Pirates for the most part had a more democratic form of government in which the many really had a say in who their leader was and can at any time terminate the relationship as a group. They had specific jobs that all came together combining their specific skill set towards a successful operation. The fact that the many acts and duration of piracy almost overthrew Colonial nations, sucked them dry of resources, or otherwise interrupted and intercepted the economy of any fair game, and feared by many; that era has left an indelible mark on the consciousness of possibility.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 15:21:28 +0000
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