The Republic of Pirates was the
base and
stronghold
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
of a loose
confederacy run by
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
s-turned-
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
s in
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
on
New Providence
New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It is the location of the national capital city of Nassau, whose boundaries are coincident with the island; it had a population of 246 ...
island in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...
during the
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, North America, and West Africa ...
for about eleven years from 1706 until 1718. While it was not a republic in a formal sense, it was governed by an informal
pirate code
A pirate code, pirate articles, or articles of agreement were a code of conduct for governing pirates. A group of sailors, on turning pirate, would draw up their own code or articles, which provided rules for discipline, division of stolen goods, ...
, which dictated that the crews of the Republic would vote on the leadership of their ships and treat other pirate crews with civility.
The activities of the pirates caused havoc with trade and shipping in the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
until newly-appointed
Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands
This is a list of governors of the Bahamas. The first English settlement in the Bahamas was on Eleuthera. In 1670, the king granted the Bahamas to the lord proprietor, lords proprietors of the Province of Carolina, but the islands were left to th ...
Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers ( 1679 – 15 July 1732) was an English sea captain, privateer, Atlantic slave trade, slave trader and, from 1718, the first List of colonial heads of the Bahamas, Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of ...
reached Nassau in 1718 and restored British control. Rogers, a former privateer himself, offered clemency to the pirates of the Bahamas, known as the "
King's Pardon", an offer many pirates took advantage of, and though a few would return to piracy in the following years, British control of the Bahamas had been secured.
History
The era of piracy in the Bahamas began in 1696, when the privateer
Henry Avery
Henry Every, also known as Henry Avery (20 August 1659after 1696), sometimes erroneously given as Jack Avery or John Avery, was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid-1690s. He probably used several aliases ...
brought his ship the ''
Fancy
Fancy may refer to:
Places
* Fancy, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a settlement
* Fancy River, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Music Albums
* ''Fancy'' (Bobbie Gentry album), 1970
* ''Fancy'' (Idiot Flesh album), 1997
* ''Fancy'' (video ...
'' loaded with loot from plundering Indian trade ships into Nassau harbour. Avery bribed the governor
Nicholas Trott
Sir Nicholas Trott (19 January 1663 – 21 January 1740) was an 18th-century British judge, legal scholar and writer. He had a lengthy legal and political career in Charleston, South Carolina and served as the colonial chief justice from 1703 un ...
with gold and silver, and with the ''Fancy'' itself, still loaded with 50 tons of elephant tusks and 100 barrels of gunpowder.
This established Nassau as a base where pirates could operate safely, although various governors regularly made a show of suppressing piracy. Although the
governors
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
were still legally in charge, the pirates became increasingly powerful.
The era of true pirate control occurred when a combined
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
-
Spanish Fleet attacked Nassau in 1703 and again in 1706; the island was effectively abandoned by many of its settlers and left without any English government presence.
Nassau was then taken over by English privateers, who became completely
lawless pirates over time. The pirates attacked French and Spanish ships, while the French and Spanish forces burned Nassau several more times. Pirates established themselves in Nassau, and essentially established their own republic with its own governors. By 1713 the
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...
was over, but many British privateers were slow to get the news, or reluctant to accept it, and so slipped into piracy. This led to large numbers of unemployed privateers making their way to New Providence to join the republic and swell its numbers. The republic was dominated by two famous pirates who were bitter rivals –
Benjamin Hornigold
Captain Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bah ...
and
Henry Jennings
Henry Jennings (died possibly 1745) was an 18th-century Kingdom of England, English privateer from the colony of Bermuda, who served primarily during the War of the Spanish Succession and later served as leader of the pirate haven or "Pirates' ...
. Hornigold was mentor to pirates such as the famous
Edward Teach
Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about ...
, known as "Blackbeard", along with
Sam Bellamy and
Stede Bonnet
Stede Bonnet (1688 – 10 December 1718) was an early 18th-century English/Barbadian pirate, also known as the Gentleman Pirate for the reason that he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born in ...
. Jennings was mentor to
Charles Vane
Charles Vane (c. 1680 – 29 March 1721) was an English pirate who operated in the Bahamas during the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Vane was likely born in the Kingdom of England around 1680. One of his first pirate ventures was under the l ...
,
"Calico" Jack Rackham,
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny (8 March 1697 – disappeared April 1721), sometimes Anne Bonney, was an Irish pirate operating in the Caribbean, and one of the few female pirates in recorded history. What little that is known of her life comes largely from Capta ...
, and
Mary Read
Mary Read (1685 – 28 April 1721), also known as Mark Read, was an English pirate. She and Anne Bonny were two famous female pirates from the 18th century, and among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy at the height of the " ...
. Despite their rivalries, the pirates formed themselves into the
Flying Gang
The Flying Gang was an 18th-century group of pirates who established themselves in Nassau, New Providence in the Bahamas after the destruction of Port Royal in Jamaica. The gang consisted of the most notorious and cunning pirates of the time, ...
and quickly became infamous for their exploits. The
Governor of Bermuda
The Governor of Bermuda (fully the ''Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Somers Isles (alias the Islands of Bermuda)'') is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Bermuda.
For the purposes of this a ...
stated that there were over 1000 pirates in Nassau at that time and that they outnumbered the mere hundred of inhabitants in the town. Blackbeard was later voted by the pirates of Nassau to be their
Magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
, to be in command of their republic and enforce
law and order
In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...
as he saw fit.
Pirate
Thomas Barrow declared "that he is Governor of Providence and will make it a second
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
, and expects 5 or 600 men more from Jamaica sloops to join in the settling of Providence, and to make war on the French and Spaniards, but for the English, they don't intend to meddle with them, unless they are first attack'd by them."
While originally the pirates had avoided attacking British ships, this restraint disappeared over time, and at their height, the pirates could command a small fleet of ships that could take on the
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
s of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
. The amount of havoc caused by the pirates led to an outcry for their destruction, and finally
George I George I or 1 may refer to:
People
* Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631)
* George I of Constantinople (d. 686)
* George I of Antioch (d. 790)
* George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9)
* George I of Georgia (d. 1027)
* Yuri Dolgor ...
appointed
Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers ( 1679 – 15 July 1732) was an English sea captain, privateer, Atlantic slave trade, slave trader and, from 1718, the first List of colonial heads of the Bahamas, Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of ...
as Governor of the Bahamas to bring the piracy to an end, and offered a
pardon to all pirates who turned themselves in.
End of the Republic
News of the King's Pardon was brought first from Bermuda, then by Captain Vincent Pearse of , and received a mixed reception, some of those rejecting the pardon being
Jacobites
Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to:
Religion
* Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include:
** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometime ...
.
Pearse made a
list of 209 pirates on New Providence – fewer than half the pirates on the island – who stated their intention to take the pardon.
In 1718 Rogers arrived in Nassau with a fleet of several ships, bringing with him the authority to grant the King's Pardon. Among those who accepted was Benjamin Hornigold, and, in a shrewd move, Rogers commissioned Hornigold to hunt down and capture those pirates who refused to surrender and accept the
royal pardon
In the English and British tradition, the royal prerogative of mercy is one of the historic royal prerogatives of the British monarch, by which they can grant pardons (informally known as a royal pardon) to convicted persons. The royal preroga ...
. As a former privateer himself, Hornigold was well placed to understand what needed to be done, and he pursued his former comrades with zeal. Although pirates such as Charles Vane and Blackbeard evaded capture, Hornigold did take ten pirates prisoner and on the morning of 12 December 1718, nine of them were executed. This act re-established
British control and ended the pirates' republic in the Bahamas. Those pirates who had fled successfully continued their piratical activities elsewhere in the Caribbean in what has become known as the Golden Age of Piracy.
Code of conduct
The pirates ran their affairs using what was called the
pirate code
A pirate code, pirate articles, or articles of agreement were a code of conduct for governing pirates. A group of sailors, on turning pirate, would draw up their own code or articles, which provided rules for discipline, division of stolen goods, ...
, which was the basis of their claim that their rule of New Providence constituted a kind of republic. According to the code, the pirates ran their ships
democratically
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
, sharing plunder equally and
selecting and deposing their
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
s by
popular vote
Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group.
Popular may also refer to:
In sociology
* Popular culture
* Popular fiction
* Popular music
* Popular science
* Populace, the total ...
. Many of the pirates were privateers out of work since the end of the
Queen Anne's War
Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought in North America involving the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Spain; it took place during the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. In E ...
and ex-sailors who had revolted against the conditions on
merchant
A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...
and
naval ships.
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
s could be equal members of the crew, and several people of mixed European and African descent became pirate captains. Some of the pirates were also
Jacobites, who had become pirates to help restore the recently deposed
Stuart line to the throne. A few female pirates like
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny (8 March 1697 – disappeared April 1721), sometimes Anne Bonney, was an Irish pirate operating in the Caribbean, and one of the few female pirates in recorded history. What little that is known of her life comes largely from Capta ...
and
Mary Read
Mary Read (1685 – 28 April 1721), also known as Mark Read, was an English pirate. She and Anne Bonny were two famous female pirates from the 18th century, and among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy at the height of the " ...
were also present.
Pirates of Nassau
File:Early 18th century engraving of Charles Vane.jpg, Charles Vane
Charles Vane (c. 1680 – 29 March 1721) was an English pirate who operated in the Bahamas during the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Vane was likely born in the Kingdom of England around 1680. One of his first pirate ventures was under the l ...
File:Bbeard Sword.jpg, Edward Teach
Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about ...
File:Rackham, Jack.jpg, Jack Rackham
John Rackham (26 December 168218 November 1720), commonly known as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain operating in the Bahamas and in Cuba during the early 18th century. His nickname was derived from the calico clothing that he wore, whil ...
Captain Pearse's list of pirates intending to take the King's Pardon
In popular culture
In ''
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag'', fictional character
Edward Kenway
Edward James Kenway is a fictional character in Ubisoft's ''Assassin's Creed'' video game franchise. He was introduced as a supporting character in '' Assassin's Creed: Forsaken'', a companion novel to the 2012 video game ''Assassin's Creed III' ...
helps to seize control of
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
and establish the pirate republic with other major pirates of the
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, North America, and West Africa ...
.
The TV series ''
Black Sails'' is largely based on the history and famous historical pirate inhabitants of Nassau. Several characters' motivations are rooted in the idea of establishing a true "Republic of Pirates" in Nassau.
[The Truth Behind the Black Sails Saga, Islandztours.com : http://islandztours.com/truth-behind-black-sails-saga/ ]
The
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
limited series ''
The Lost Pirate Kingdom'' (2021) is also based on the exploits and rivalries of both the Republic of Pirates as well as the
Flying Gang
The Flying Gang was an 18th-century group of pirates who established themselves in Nassau, New Providence in the Bahamas after the destruction of Port Royal in Jamaica. The gang consisted of the most notorious and cunning pirates of the time, ...
and its members, including
Benjamin Hornigold
Captain Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bah ...
,
Sam Bellamy,
Henry Jennings
Henry Jennings (died possibly 1745) was an 18th-century Kingdom of England, English privateer from the colony of Bermuda, who served primarily during the War of the Spanish Succession and later served as leader of the pirate haven or "Pirates' ...
, and
Blackbeard
Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English Piracy, pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's Thirteen Colonies, North American colon ...
.
The 2022
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
series ''
Our Flag Means Death
''Our Flag Means Death'' is an American period comedy television series created by David Jenkins. Set in the early 18th century during the Golden Age of Piracy, the series follows the misadventures of gentleman-turned-pirate Stede Bonnet ( Rh ...
'' features the Republic of Pirates in episode 3, "A Gentleman Pirate".
See also
*
1715 Treasure Fleet
The 1715 Treasure Fleet was actually a combination of two Spanish treasure fleets returning from the New World to Spain, the "Nueva España Fleet", under Capt.-General Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla, and the "Tierra Firme Fleet", under Don Antonio de ...
*
Brethren of the Coast
The Brethren or Brethren of the Coast were a loose coalition of pirates and privateers commonly known as buccaneers that were active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico.
They we ...
*
Distribution of justice
*
*
Libertatia
Libertatia (also known as Libertalia) was a purported pirate colony founded in the late 17th century in Madagascar under the leadership of Captain James Misson (last name occasionally spelled "Mission", first name occasionally "Olivier"). The ma ...
*
Republic of Salé
The Republic of Salé was a city state at Salé (modern Morocco), during the 17th century. Located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg river, it was founded by Moriscos from the town of Hornachos, in Western Spain. Moriscos were the descendants of M ...
*
Victual Brothers
, native_name_lang =
, named_after = french: vitailleurs (provisioners, Hundred Years' War)
, image = Vitalienbrueder, Wandmalerei in d, Kirche zu Bunge auf Gotland, gemalt ca. 1405.JPG
, image_size = 250px ...
*
Thalassocracy
A thalassocracy or thalattocracy sometimes also maritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples ...
*
Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger is the traditional English name for the flags flown to identify a pirate ship preceding or during an attack, during the early 18th century (the later part of the Golden Age of Piracy).
The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly ...
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Website of the book ''The Republic of Pirates'' by Colin Wodward
St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum website
{{Pirates
18th century in the Bahamas
History of the Colony of the Bahamas
Piracy in the Caribbean
Pirate dens and locations
Former republics
Republicanism in the Bahamas
1700s establishments in the Caribbean
1706 establishments in North America
States and territories established in 1706
1718 disestablishments in North America
2nd-millennium disestablishments in the Caribbean
States and territories disestablished in the 1710s