内容简介
Welcome to the Pirate Republic—the early-eighteenth-centuryhome to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard,"Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellowpirates—former sailors, indentured servants, and runawayslaves—this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctivedemocracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom inwhich servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, andleaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.
For a brief, glorious period the Pirate Republic was enormouslysuccessful. It cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, andsevered Europe from its New World empires. Imperial authorities andwealthy shipowners denounced its residents as the enemiesof mankind, but common people saw them as heroes. Colin Woodardtells the dramatic untold story of the Pirate Republic that shookthe very foundations of the British and Spanish Empires and fannedthe democratic sentiments that would one day drive the AmericanRevolution.
For a brief, glorious period the Pirate Republic was enormouslysuccessful. It cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, andsevered Europe from its New World empires. Imperial authorities andwealthy shipowners denounced its residents as the enemiesof mankind, but common people saw them as heroes. Colin Woodardtells the dramatic untold story of the Pirate Republic that shookthe very foundations of the British and Spanish Empires and fannedthe democratic sentiments that would one day drive the AmericanRevolution.