Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy

by Frank Sherry

Book Overview

I he most authoritative history of piracy, Frank Sherry's rich and colorful account reveals the rise and fall of the real "raiders and rebels" who terrorized the seas. From 1692 to 1725 pirates sailed the oceans of the world, plundering ships laden with the riches of India, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. Often portrayed as larger-than-life characters, these outlaw figures and their bloodthirsty exploits have long been immortalized in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061572845
• ISBN13: 9780061572845
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A great account of the classic pirate era

Frank Sherry's Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy is not the ultimate work on pirates, but it is an excellent account of the classic pirate era, the one we're familiar with from books like Treasure Island to the recent Pirates of the Caribbean movies. For his book, Sherry chose the period from 1692 to 1725, which may seem like a rather short era but it was in fact the period when many of the pirates we are most familiar with - Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, Anne Bonny, etc - were making their names known from the Atlantic to the Indian oceans and all places in between. The dates were not chosen arbitrarily - 1692 was when an American adventurer, Captain Tew, launched the first and one of the most successful pirate attacks on the treasure ships of the Great Mogul of India, which in turn inspired countless others as word spread of the vast riches to be had. 1725 saw the last of the pirate bases in Madagascar being abandoned. And while a few names like Captain Morgan predate the chosen era and Jean Lafitte postdate it, it does nonetheless cover the time and events on which most pirate stories and legends are based. Sherry is good at working in the historical details, explaining why some men turned to piracy, what their tactics were, how loot was divided, why the fortunes of war between nations could change the prospects for pirates for better or worse, what was legend as opposed to what was fact, and so on. For example, walking the plank was really the stuff of novels and movies; the preferred pirate punishment was marooning. If a man committed an offense but was well regarded, he might be marooned on an actual island with vegetation. If not, he might instead be marooned on what amounted to nothing more than a sandbar at low tide. If a pirate killed a shipmate, then the dead man's body would be tied to his and both would be thrown overboard. But, it is important to note, never without a trial and a vote of the entire crew beforehand. One of the attractions of the pirate life was that it was in fact extremely democratic, with no man set over other by mere rank or birth. Spoils of successful raids were divided pretty evenly with the captain getting a mere two shares to the average crewman's share. Contrast this to the British navy where the captain got three-eighths, the admiralty got an eighth, other officers divided up an eighth, and the rest of the crew divided up the remaining three-eighths; if a ship had fifty crewmen, each man got one fiftieth of what the captain got. Small wonder so many seamen found piracy much more lucrative, not to mention fair. This book is a wealth of information for anyone who wants to know about the period or about the men - and women - who made their names. Among the things I learned were: Captain Kidd was not actually a pirate but a pirate hunter who was done in by bad luck, poor judgement and endless self-delusion. One of the most successful pirates was a man named Henry Every, who not only knew to quit while r

An entire musuem between two covers.

"Raiders and Rebels" heeds the advice of telling an entire story from background to climax while being kind enough to remove all the unnecessary parts. We learn about the conditions of miniscule earnings, rotten food, and brutal merchant captains that turned ordinary sailors into authority-hating pirates. We learn truth from myth without losing an ounce of the wonder that made the stories of pirates into centuries-old legends. Told in a linear narrative from 1692 to 1725, "Raiders and Rebels" succinctly establishes the sea settings and major players of the era and moves us along the rise and fall of piracy's golden age replete with anecdotes of captured prisoners' heads set afire, Spanish monks made to run in circles while being whipped and stabbed by the entire pirate crew, and daring escapes and defiant last stands and a famous beheading of a legend.In 1692, sailors were harshly treated, malnourished, minimally paid, and essentially enslaved to the boat and its profitting captain and owners. The ships themselves were evenly matched (even if outgunned) with naval warships in technology and seamanship, making rebellion possible. And the Navigation Acts dating from 1651 had forced the American colonies to trade only with England, artificially driving up prices and making fine goods a rarity in the colonies. These Acts created a huge demand and subsequent black market in the colonies for illegal goods. This was the world that sailors toiled in when the outbreak of privateering struck the maritime world.Privateering was the practice of one country issuing a license to a private ship to attack and plunder merchants from an enemy country. In an instant, privateers swarmed the seas, each ship promising its crew better pay than the more honest sailors would ever earn.But when peace was declared, these hardened privateers were essentially asked to return to their shackles and sentences aboard merchant ships. Many rebelled and turned to privateering without licenses, the lack of which made them official pirates.Pirates flourished, gained freedom and fame, corrupted governors, built island kingdoms in Madagascar, the Bahamas and even off the American coast, they established anarchic towns of debauchary, and threatened the burgeoning shipping industry to the point of collapse. Truly democratic, pirate societies gave the promise of freedom and power to desperate men. Heroes arose among the pirates and the pirate-hunters and Frank Sherry gives due account to both.Most interesting to me, however, was that piracy was not possible without atrocious conditions in the merchant business and a willing market in the Americas to deal in pirated goods. While pirates certainly committed evil acts, they were not without their root causes. A lesson that rings true today.A fascinating read, I found myself compulsively taking notes throughout the entire book. An excellent account of history with a touch of artistic sensitivity to keep it grounded and readable.

An Excellent Reference Book about Pirates and Piracy!

I beg your pardon, Mr. Bruce Rex, top 500 Reviewer! Your review was well-written and accurate except for one HUGE ERROR! You commented that the pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, were lesbians?!!! That, sir, is far from the truth. As the author of RAIDERS & REBELS states, Anne Bonny was the young wife of James Bonny, a n'er-do-well sailor. After a few months of marriage, she ran away to sea with the notorious but handsome Calico Jack Rackham. (Mr. Sherry states Anne had many lovers before Jack, but I wonder where he got that information. I never read anything of the sort except in fictional novels!) As for Mary Read: She had worn men's clothing most of her life, fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, and fell in LOVE with a fellow soldier!!! She and her soldier married, were discharged from the army, and ran a pub in the Nederlands before her husband died. After his death, she again donned men's clothing, went to sea on a merchantman, and eventually ended up sailing on Calico Jack's ship where she and Anne became best friends. It is believed Anne had two children by Calico Jack. And Mary was pregnant with a child of her new love (an unnamed pirate aboard Rackham's ship) when they were captured in Negril Bay off the west coast of Jamaica. Frank Sherry included an index and bibliography as well as chapter notes in his wonderful book! I recommend it for everyone.I also recommend a children's novel that has photos and accurate information about pirates including Anne Bonny and Mary Read: The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo includes a scene about Blackbeard and his men in 1718 Charles Town, SC. Also, a must read for any age!

"Will Ye Join Us, Brother?"

This is the single best overall book available on piracy's Golden Age. Sherry organizes his material very well, telling a straight chronological history of piracy's evolution from early buccaneers to king's privateers to outright pirates. He devotes separate chapters to the most famous captains, elucidating their personal histories and careers in a clear and concise manner - Henry Morgan, Edward Teach (Blackbeard), Edward Low, Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart), Calico Jack Rackham (and his lesbian pirate associates, Anne Bonney and Mary Read), the ill-fated Captain Kidd, and more. He also renders a wonderful biography of Woodes Rogers, the privateer-turned-governor of Nassau, a fascinating character whose actions, perhaps more than anyone else's, most damaged the cohesion of piracy - helping it fall apart of its own accord, due to disorganization and lack of discipline and foresight.Sherry does not write merely about piracy as seagoing theft, but about the short-lived and surprisingly democratic "Maritime Nation." Few people realize that the "Brethren of the Coast" (as they styled themselves) were one of the earliest "countries" - and certainly the only one of their age - to institute accident and disability insurance and elected leadership, not to mention equal opportunity employment and what essentially amounted to equal-share company stock options. Sherry does an expert job of illustrating the brutality and oppression of the age, making it clear why so many sailors voluntarily joined ranks with the seafaring rebels - whose primary battle cry was not "death to all," but "Will ye join us, Brother?"Many myths are explored and deflated, and many others shown to have a great deal of validity. There is only one recorded instance of anyone being made to walk the plank, for instance, (even if the pirates played on that prevalent myth to their own advantage), though marooning was indeed the favored form of pirate capital punishment.Most importantly, Sherry does a fine job of making the reader feel what daily life was like for the pirates - and for their suffering cousins in the merchant marines and the Royal Navy - and portrays them in a sympathetic and understanding light. He doesn't soft-pedal the darker side of piracy, but he does put it into perspective.Equally recommended is David Cordingly's "Under the Black Flag," though Sherry's "Raiders and Rebels" is better organized and actually more thorough.

Shiver Me Timbers!

A profound writing on the tumultuous, sea-going times of the Golden Age of Pirates, from 1692-1725. Raiders and Rebels, though a historical work, sparks as much imagination as a well-written novel and speaks with an amazing amount of clarity and excitement. A fantastic read, I loved every minute! I recommend it to anyone who's ever dreamt of those swashbuckling days of a bygone, but not forgotten era. Wow! Great job Frank!