Notorious
Places of Pirate Lore
The Bahamas & Pirates
The Bahamas were originally
inhabited by a group of Arawak Indians known as Lucayan. Originally
from the South American continent, some of the Arawak had been
driven north into the Caribbean by the Carib Indians. Unlike their
Carib neighbors, the Lucayan were generally peaceful, more involved
in fishing than agriculture, and not cannibalistic.
When Columbus reached
the New World in 1492, he is thought to have landed on San Salvador
(also called Watling Island) or possibly Samana Cay, both in the
Bahamas. The Spaniards made no attempt to settle but operated
slave raids on the peaceful Arawak that depopulated the islands,
and by the time the English arrived the Bahamas were uninhabited.
In 1629 Charles I of England
granted the islands to one of his ministers, but no attempt at
settlement was made. In 1648 William Sayle led a group of English
Puritans from Bermuda to, it is thought, Eleuthera Island. This
settlement met with extreme adversity and did not prosper, but
other Bermudan migrants continued to arrive. New Providence was
settled in 1656. By 1670 the Bahamas were given to the Duke of
Albemarle and five others as a proprietary colony. The proprietors
were mostly uninterested in the islands, and few of the settlements
prospered. Piracy became a way of life for many.
The pirate community was
large and well established. Because of it location relative to
the British colonies in North America, it became a major concern
for the Crown and a convenient location for smugglers and pirates
of every nation. For this reason the British set up a Naval station
to combat the pirates.
The colony reverted to
the Crown in 1717, and serious efforts were made to end the piracy.
The first royal governor, Woodes Rogers, succeeded in controlling
the pirates but mostly at his own expense. Little monetary and
military support came from England. Consequently, the islands
remained poor and susceptible to Spanish attack.
Rogers was an exceptional
pirate hunter. He offered pardons to pirates in an effort to get
them to turn. While most weere skeptical, they sooned found him
to be sincere and eventually 2,000 pirates accepted the pardons
and made the Bahamas virtually pirate free. Rogers knew the habits
of pirates and he was certain that many of the pardoned pirates
would go back to their evil ways. But this concerned him little.
Rogers recruited men from among those pardoned to hunt down those
who returned to their old ways. The move was quite successful
and eventually many of the brethren of the coast were "dancing
the devil's jig" on the gallows.
Held for a few days by
the U.S. Navy in 1776, and for almost a year by Spain in 1782-83,
the islands reverted to England in 1783 and received a boost in
population from loyalists and their slaves who fled the United
States after the American Revolution. For a time, cotton plantations
brought some prosperity to the islands, but when the soil gave
out and slavery was abolished in 1834, the Bahamas' endemic poverty
returned.
Two other periods of prosperity
followed: the years 1861-65, when the Bahamas became a center
for blockade runners during the American Civil War, and in 1920-33,
when bootlegging became big business during the years of American
Prohibition. But these were economic accidents; not until the
tourist industry was developed after World War II did any form
of permanent prosperity come to the islands.
The need to secure political
representation for the islands' black majority led to the formation
of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), which was able to form
a government in 1967. The PLP worked to end racial segregation
and secure independence for the islands, which was granted in
1973. Among the problems the government had to cope with after
independence were drug trafficking in the Out Islands and the
illegal entry of many Haitian refugees.
Gallows Point & Execution Dock
Two of the most infamous places for hanging pirates.
Gallows point was located on the Palisadoes in Jamaica. Often
after the pirate was hanged, he would then be fitted in a suit
of irons and displayed on a sandy cay near Port Royal. One such
Cay, Rackham Cay is the place where Calico Jack Rackham was hung
in irons as a warning to other sea farers.
Execution Dock was in
London on the Thames. Many a pirate were sent on "the other
journey" from this place. It was customary to then hang the
pirates in irons along the Thames, especially at the mouth of
the Thames, called Graves Point, as a reminder to all sailors
what became of mutineers and pirates.
New Orleans
For the most part New Orleans missed the Golden Age of Piracy
and doesn't figure into the scope of this site. Founded in 1717
by France, it was for the most part a non-profiable port and France
ceded New Orleans to Spain in 1762. A few years later, the American
colonist had a rebellion and formed a new nation. The new founded
nation had expanded as far west as the Mississippi and saw it
as a logical way to move goods to the Atlantic Ocean. These Americans,
were known as "Kaintucks" (Slang for Kentuckian) by
the people of New Orleans and for some reason the local inhabitants
didn't like these foreigners and often placed embargoes on their
shipment. This did little to make New Orleans a propfitable port
for Spain and so Spain decided to secretly give New Orleans back
to France in 1800. The French were no dummies and so in 1803,
they decided they trick President Thomas Jefferson into buying
New Orleans and the rest of Louisana, and in turn they could use
the money to fight a war with most of Europe. The history books
refer to this as the Louisana Purchase.
Now steadily New Orleans
has been growing in size and population. Its population has also
become one of the most vibrant melting pots in America, consisting
of French, Canadians, Spaniards, Run-away slaves, Native Americans,
and now Americans from the former English colonies. With the river
trade that from the colonies, New Orleans finally starts to turn
a profit, and where there is money there is smugglers and pirates.
Enter Jean Laffite. Laffite
carried a letter of Marque from the government of Colombia and
consider himself a Privateer. He and his brother Pierre owned
a black smith shop around Barataria Bay. The shop was actually
a front for their illicit smuggling business. Besides slaves,
Laffite also moved stolen goods from the numerous pirates who
operated the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. On accoasion Laffite
would also go on the account and pillage a Spanish ship now and
then but for the most part it was safer and more profitable receiving
the stolen goods.
His claim to fame came
during the War of 1812. Laffitte was offered £30,000 Sterling
and a Letter of Marque by the British to use his base as a staging
area for the Royal Navy. Laffite, always the scoudrel took the
money and then turned coat and informed the Americans of the British
plan. At first the Lousiana officials didn't beleive him and they
attacked Lafitte's stronghold at Barataria Bay destroying osme
of his ship but not his business. Shortly after this it became
clear that Laffite had been telling the truth. Laffite once again
approached the American with information. General Andrew Jackson
asked Laffite to help defend the city and Laffite agreed, but
only after getting unconditional pardons for himself and his associates.
The Baratarians, as Laffite and his men came to be known, fought
with distinction. Jackson personally commended Laffite as "one
of the ablest men" of the battle, and Pres. James Madison
issued a public proclamation of pardon for the group
But once a smuggler and pirate, always a smuggler and pirate.
By 1817, Laffite was once again smuggling and piracy, still operating
under the Letter of Marque from Colombia. He had moved his base
of operation to Campeche (now Galveston, Texas) and with a following
of some 1,000 men continued to raid ships throughout the Gulf
of Mexico. In 1820 some of his followers had the gall to attack
a U. S. Ship and the American government decided it had had enough.
Seeing his days numbered, Laffite hand picked some of his favorite
men, board his dhip the The Pride burned Campeche to the ground.
and headed south to calmer waters and easier pickings along the
coast of South America. He was still operating in this area around
1825 but nothing is known of his final fate.
Charleston (Charles Town)
Major Sea Port in North America. (South Carolina) Kind of hard
to associate it with the Caribbean, but it was often a port of
call for such notorious pirates such as Black Beard. Charleston
had a very active smuggling trade in its colonial days.
Charleston would run hot and cold with piracy, depending on the
Governor of the time. For the most part, however, pirates were
not welcome. Charleston is noted mainly in Pirate history because
of Black Beard's blockade of that city.
Black Beard kidnapped
several notable people from Charleston and held them for ransom,
not for money but for medicine. Because of poor hygiene, poor
diet, bad living condition, and a tendency to rumming and whoring,
pirates would often need medicine more than money.
It is also rumored that
Anne Bonny was smuggled from Jamaica to Charleston When wealthy
relatives paid money for her release. It is believed that she
then married a rich landowner and lived out her life
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