by Isabella Nestor

The true history of pirates is often unknown; usually hidden behind a fictitious image we created of them. In reality, there is not much known about the existence of pirates, or if they even do. Pirates are figures that are often depicted as spontaneous and mysterious and are a largely romanticized version of reality. The reality of a pirate’s life can be defined by the civilizations during the Golden Age of Piracy and afterward to the extent to which their work was done. Using the book, Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly, I decided to dig for the truth and try to better understand the separation between the modern-day pirate and the true “early enlightenment pirate”. Through this process, I was able to formulate how their modern image was built out of pieces from the past. Based on my investigation, pirates are based on a past understanding of armed violent looters that were misinterpreted in more modern literature as romanticized fantastical figures. 

The term “pirate” refers to a criminal on the seas. Pirates’ crimes often included murders and robberies on the open waters which made pirates the main antagonist of the Early Enlightenment period and any crimes, murders, felonies, or robberies done on a body of water made pirates the antagonist of the Early Enlightenment period. This definition was issued by King Henry VIII to avoid confusion with other Naval Commanders like privateers. Privateers are soldiers on armed vessels usually commissioned by nations to plan attacks overseas, and their licensing was defined by a letter of marque and reprisal (constituting an authorization to seize armed vessels) to dispel confusion. Nevertheless, pirates and privateers were still confused for each other. This confusion contributed to the written interpretation of sea-borne deeds. Criminal acts were confused with heroic acts explaining the misinterpretation of the role of pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy. As a result, the greatest criminals were slowly written as fantastical figures for dramatic storytelling.

Finding evidence and reports of pirate life from the Golden Age of Piracy is far less. However, the few sources that can be found came from naval logbooks, reports from colonial governors, dispositions of captured pirates, and accounts of their victims. Another important source from the Golden Age of Piracy is Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates published in 1724. Captain Charles Johnson was his nom de plume, a pseudonym or pen name that concealed his real name. His use of detailed vocabulary and in-depth descriptions helped the credibility of his tales immensely. His tales were so detailed that many historians speculate that his true heritage was that of a veteran pirate. American scholar John Robert Moore even claimed that the author was a journalist named Daniel Defoe, however, the theory was debunked 50 years later. Nevertheless, this book was a great catalyst for the next generation of stories that gave a mythical status to some famous pirates like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd.

As the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end, sea-borne outlaws became less common and gained a romantic status. Benefiting from this perception, Lord Byron’s epic poem The Corsair published in 1814 entitled the adventures of a gloomy and noble outlaw. The main character, Conrad, is a prideful tyrant captain who has the air of a Gothic villain. Instead of being violent and realistic, the story focuses on the pirate’s noble deeds and acts of long-lost love.  The story became an instant hit, due to the author’s previous noble status. The popularity of this story sparked the exploration of more mythicized pirate tales throughout the rest of the nineteenth century. Historical, fictitious, and extremely adventurous tales like Walter Scott’s The Pirate and R. M. Ballantyne’s Coral Island paved the way for the new stereotypical, but fake, pirate persona. Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, created many works in correspondence to pirate life like Hispaniola and most importantly Treasure Island. Treasure Island was created by Stevenson as a coming-of-age children’s story and so its characters and plots are exaggerated. Appealing to a young audience meant making the story innocently heroic and adventurous, obviously contrary to the reality of outlaws and criminals. This interpretation found shelter with its popularity in the young generation and passed on to formulate the image of a pirate in modern society. The drastic change of the fiend to the hero was a result of the pride that pirates had for their adventures and how they were understood through generations of literature.  

Through the real sea-borne crimes and fictitious honorable lives of pirates, people were only partially aware of pirates and what their role was during the Golden Age of Piracy. Pirates were known as violent and deadly, killing and torturing any victims that were unlucky enough to come across them. But they were also seen as prideful figures who were commissioned to fight in wars and for good causes. However, not only were they confused and misinterpreted for hopeful circumstances but were also twisted into more socially acceptable realities that the average person could understand. The evolution of pirate literature is not necessarily a bad thing. After the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, there was a clear opportunity for authors and journalists to make light of the interpretations that surfaced. The result ended up being a series of well-loved and enjoyed pieces of media. Regardless, when watching or reading a stereotypical piece of pirate media, people should understand that the roots of popular tales are never as flowery as the stories make them out to be.