Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. If you're watching this on Netflix,
Speaker 1: it looks a little different from how it typically looks
Speaker 1: because we are recording from the studio at Bahamar and
Speaker 1: Nasau in the Bahamas. I thought, since we were in
Speaker 1: the Bahamas, it might be nice to record something that
Speaker 1: was specific to where we are, and that of course
Speaker 1: led me to pirates because for a period during its history,
Speaker 1: Nasau was a notorious hotbed of pirate activity. It is
Speaker 1: coincidental that the Assassin's Creed franchise has literally just put
Speaker 1: out a remaster of the game that is set both
Speaker 1: here and during all the things that we were talking about,
Speaker 1: because we're going to be talking about Nasa as a
Speaker 1: pirate republic, particularly home to a maritime criminal network known
Speaker 1: as the Flying Gang. And to start with a little
Speaker 1: bit of background, today, there are about thirty inhabited islands
Speaker 1: in the Bahamas, which has a total of about seven
Speaker 1: hundred islands and more than two thousand keys. Prior to
Speaker 1: the arrival of Europeans in the late fifteenth century. This
Speaker 1: archipelago was home to the Arawakan speaking people known as
Speaker 1: the Lukayo or Lucayan people. This name comes from their
Speaker 1: own name for themselves, which is Luku Kairie, meaning island people.
Speaker 1: They may have shared common ancestry with the Tainos who
Speaker 1: lived in other parts of the Caribbean, and they're sometimes
Speaker 1: called the Lucayan Tainos. They probably made their way to
Speaker 1: the Bahamas from other parts of the Caribbean by the
Speaker 1: year eight hundred, and in the late fifteenth century their
Speaker 1: population totaled about forty thousand people. According to a twenty
Speaker 1: fourteen paper titled Naming the Bahamas Islands History and Folk
Speaker 1: Etymology by Wolfgang p Arns, the name Bahama is Lucayan.
Speaker 1: It comes from their name for Grand Bahama Island that
Speaker 1: was Bahama, meaning large upper middle land. New Providence Island,
Speaker 1: which is where Nasau is located, was called Nimma or
Speaker 1: a middle water. This paper references sixteenth and seventeenth century maps,
Speaker 1: a lot of which include Lucayan names for all of
Speaker 1: these islands and almost no Spanish ones, and that also
Speaker 1: referenced a lot of earlier scholarship into history and linguistics
Speaker 1: The first Europeans to arrive in the Bahamas were part
Speaker 1: of Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the Americas. They made
Speaker 1: landfall on Guanahani, known in English as San Salvador Island
Speaker 1: in fourteen ninety two. Columbus and his crew captured and
Speaker 1: enslaved some of the people they encountered in the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: and other Europeans who arrived later in the fifteenth and
Speaker 1: sixteenth centuries did the same. Lucayans also died of diseases
Speaker 1: that were introduced by the Europeans and as the result
Speaker 1: of violence, as well as while they were doing the
Speaker 1: work that they were forced to do while enslaved. That
Speaker 1: included diving for pearls off the coast of Venezuela and
Speaker 1: working in silver mines. Over the course of this enslavement
Speaker 1: and genocide in the sixteenth century, the Lucayan people ceased
Speaker 1: to exist as a distinct cultural group. When Wamponcee de
Speaker 1: Lyon arrived in the area in fifteen thirteen, he said
Speaker 1: he encountered only one person in the northern Bahama Islands.
Speaker 1: It is likely that some people were able to flee
Speaker 1: to other parts of the Caribbean and to find homes
Speaker 1: with other indigenous communities. There are definitely people with Tino
Speaker 1: ancestry still living today, and in recent years there's been
Speaker 1: a big resurgence in Tino identity in the Caribbean. There
Speaker 1: are also other Ariwuakan speaking peoples in other parts of
Speaker 1: the Caribbean and in South America today. Columbus of course
Speaker 1: claimed all of the islands he encountered for Spain, and
Speaker 1: in the seventeenth century other European powers, including Britain, France,
Speaker 1: and the Dutch Republics, started claiming parts of the Caribbean
Speaker 1: as well. In sixteen twenty nine, British King Charles the
Speaker 1: First granted territories in America to Robert Heath, including quote
Speaker 1: Bahama and all other isles and islands lying southerly there
Speaker 1: or near upon the foresaid continent. Heath did not really
Speaker 1: do much to try to settle or occupy the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: and for a few decades after this other British efforts
Speaker 1: to maybe establish some kind of settlement were largely unsuccessful. Then,
Speaker 1: in sixteen seventy the British established Charlestown on the island
Speaker 1: of New Providence. The Spanish raided Charlestown, and they burned
Speaker 1: it down in sixteen eighty four. A little more than
Speaker 1: a decade later, in sixteen ninety five, the British rebuilt
Speaker 1: it and named it Nassau, after the House of Nasau,
Speaker 1: which was a German aristocratic dynasty by that point. The
Speaker 1: King of England was William the Third, also known as
Speaker 1: William of Orange, who was descended from William the First,
Speaker 1: also known as William the Silent or William of Nasau. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: considering that we just talked about Spain burning down Charlestown,
Speaker 1: this whole period was full of ongoing fighting among the
Speaker 1: European powers that were trying to claim and exploit various
Speaker 1: Caribbean islands. They sent colonial officials and naval ships to
Speaker 1: the islands, and they issued letters of mark authorizing privateers
Speaker 1: to use their own ships to attack and capture enemies.
Speaker 1: For the most part, privateers were not paid by the
Speaker 1: government that authorized them to do this. Their income came
Speaker 1: from the ships and cargoes that they captured along the way.
Speaker 1: So this was not just about claiming islands territory. It
Speaker 1: was interconnected with the European powers rivalries and their conflicts
Speaker 1: with one another. The number of privateers surged during the
Speaker 1: Nine Years War from sixteen eighty eight to sixteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1: That was between France and the Grand Alliance, and the
Speaker 1: members of the Grand Alliance included England. The North American
Speaker 1: component of the Nine Years War was known as King
Speaker 1: William's War. The War of the Spanish Succession started a
Speaker 1: couple of years after the Nine Years War ended, and
Speaker 1: that continued until seventeen fourteen. That war was between the
Speaker 1: Spanish Habsburgs and the Spanish Bourbons and all of their
Speaker 1: various allies. The War of the Spanish Succession also had
Speaker 1: its own American component, and that was known as Queen
Speaker 1: Anne's War. These wars and the hostilities among all these
Speaker 1: nations were interconnected with the rise in piracy in the
Speaker 1: Caribbean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In theory, privateers
Speaker 1: only attacked the ships that their letters of mark authorized
Speaker 1: them to attack, generally the enemies of whoever it was
Speaker 1: that issued the letter. But that could mean passing up
Speaker 1: some of the most lucrative ships, so some privateers turned
Speaker 1: to piracy because they could just make more money that way.
Speaker 1: When wars ended or when letters of mark expired, privateers
Speaker 1: were left without a legitimate source of income, and that
Speaker 1: also led some to become pirates. Other pirates had previously
Speaker 1: served in navies. When European powers scaled back their navies
Speaker 1: after wars were over, these sailors were similarly left without
Speaker 1: a job. Navies, especially the British Royal Navy, also were
Speaker 1: notorious for very low pay, including long delayed payments, ruling hours,
Speaker 1: terrible working conditions, and an intense culture of discipline. There
Speaker 1: could sometimes be severe punishments like being flogged associated with
Speaker 1: this discipline, so a lot of out of work sailors.
Speaker 1: Once they were put out of a job, they did
Speaker 1: not really want to go back to that life, even
Speaker 1: if a job became available. Pirate ships, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: were seen as an option that was both fairer and
Speaker 1: more lucrative. Sometimes this is depicted in an overly romanticized way,
Speaker 1: with pirate crews having this almost communal spirit and dividing
Speaker 1: their loot equally, and a lot of this comes from
Speaker 1: fictional depictions of pirates and a perception of them kind
Speaker 1: of as folk heroes. But pirate ships of this era
Speaker 1: did typically function under a written compact, which was created
Speaker 1: when a captain was assembling a crew, or at the
Speaker 1: start of a voyage, or if a new captain was
Speaker 1: taking over. This compact outlined how plunder would be distributed,
Speaker 1: what all the rules were, and how discipline would be
Speaker 1: carried out. In most of the surviving compacts, everyone got
Speaker 1: a share of the plunder, with officers getting a little
Speaker 1: bit more. So the captain might get a share and
Speaker 1: a half or two shares, while lower ranking officers usually
Speaker 1: got more like a share and a half or a
Speaker 1: share in a quarter. This was wildly different from the
Speaker 1: way things worked on most other vessels, where the captains
Speaker 1: and the officers got hundreds or even thousands of times
Speaker 1: more than the ordinary sailors did. On many pirate ships,
Speaker 1: disputes were settled and punishments were determined by voting. If
Speaker 1: someone stole something from another member of the crew, or
Speaker 1: was cowardly during a fight, or broke a relatively minor rule,
Speaker 1: their punishment might be whatever the majority of the crew
Speaker 1: thought was appropriate. That did not mean that everything went
Speaker 1: smoothly or that everybody was satisfied with life or ships
Speaker 1: all the time. These ships could still be incredibly violent places. Again,
Speaker 1: these were criminal enterprises. Captains and officers could still be
Speaker 1: unreasonable or cruel. Ships could still run aground, or run
Speaker 1: out of provisions, or get into all kinds of misfortune.
Speaker 1: Some ships codes outlined punishments that could still be severe,
Speaker 1: including death or being marooned on an island somewhere. But
Speaker 1: for the most part, for a lot of people, life
Speaker 1: as a pirates still seemed better than the alternatives. Laps,
Speaker 1: privateering contracts, and out of work navymen can't really account
Speaker 1: for all of the pirates in this era. There were
Speaker 1: also pirates who had previously been merchant seamen, who often
Speaker 1: faced similar conditions to those on navy ships, but the
Speaker 1: large majority of pirates had been one of the three.
Speaker 1: Roughly a third were British and roughly a quarter were American,
Speaker 1: and there were also pirates from all over Europe and
Speaker 1: South Asia sailing in the Caribbean and the Atlantic. It's
Speaker 1: likely that between a quarter and a third of the
Speaker 1: sailors on a typical pirate crew were black, many of
Speaker 1: whom had liberated themselves from enslavement. There were also pirates
Speaker 1: who had enslaved people on their crew, or included slaves
Speaker 1: as part of the loot to be distributed. We will
Speaker 1: get to the rise in piracy around Nasau. After a
Speaker 1: sponsor break around the time that Britain rebuilt Nassau in
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety five, Sir Nicholas Trott was named governor of
Speaker 1: the Bahamas. Nasau was the capital, but there were really
Speaker 1: not many people there, and Trot did not have a
Speaker 1: lot of support in defending Nassau. This was during the
Speaker 1: Nine Years' War, and he was naturally concerned about the
Speaker 1: possibility of a French attack on Nassau. So when an
Speaker 1: arm ship arrived at port in March of sixteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: with a captain calling himself Henry Bridgeman and offering Trot
Speaker 1: a bribe to kind of look the other way, Trot
Speaker 1: thought this ship's presence might work as a deterrent. In
Speaker 1: addition to its armaments, the ship's crew doubled the number
Speaker 1: of men in Nassau. Trot also thought it was possible
Speaker 1: that if he denied entry to this ship, it might
Speaker 1: leave and join the French side. That captain was really
Speaker 1: pirate hen who we've covered on the show before. Six
Speaker 1: months before this, he and other pirates had pulled off
Speaker 1: what's been described as the most profitable pirate raid in history.
Speaker 1: That was on a Mughal Empire fleet whose passengers included
Speaker 1: members of the emperor's family who were returning from the Hajj.
Speaker 1: This was a massive international incident, and there was intense
Speaker 1: pressure on British authorities to find every and bring him
Speaker 1: to justice. Eventually, someone told Trot whoevery really was, and
Speaker 1: Every fled before he could be captured. By that point,
Speaker 1: most of Every's crew had divided their spoils among themselves
Speaker 1: and scattered. Trot was dismissed as governor later that year.
Speaker 1: The War of the Spanish Succession started about five years
Speaker 1: after this, and in seventeen oh three, a combined Spanish
Speaker 1: and French fleet attacked the Bahamas. They raided Nassau. They
Speaker 1: spiked all the cannons in the fort, and they took
Speaker 1: about eighty people prison That included acting Governor Ellis Lightfoot,
Speaker 1: who some sources call Ellis Lightwood. They also took British
Speaker 1: soldiers and enslaved Africans captive. Lightfoot and some of the
Speaker 1: other captives were later ransomed, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: were killed during this raid. When the next appointed governor,
Speaker 1: Edward Burch, arrived in seventeen oh four, he found Nassau
Speaker 1: almost completely destroyed and virtually deserted, and he described the
Speaker 1: few remaining survivors as not even having a shift to
Speaker 1: cover their nakedness. Birch quickly went back to England. After
Speaker 1: he left, no one replaced him in Nassau for years.
Speaker 1: A second Spanish raid in seventeen oh six scattered the
Speaker 1: few people who had made their way back to Nasau.
Speaker 1: For all practical purposes, the Bahamas were ungoverned, with maybe
Speaker 1: five hundred British subjects scattered around the islands and fending
Speaker 1: for themselves. England's part in the War of the Spanish
Speaker 1: Succession ended in seventeen thirteen with the Treaty of Utrecht.
Speaker 1: This was one of a whole series of treaties that
Speaker 1: ended this war, and there was a bunch of other
Speaker 1: stuff going on in the treaty. Among other things, it
Speaker 1: ultimately led to the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia,
Speaker 1: which we've covered on the show before. The part that
Speaker 1: is most relevant to this episode is that it ended
Speaker 1: England's part in the war, and consequently it ended England's
Speaker 1: need for so many privateers. This is often cited as
Speaker 1: a big factor in the spike in pirate activity in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean in the eighteenth century. As all of those
Speaker 1: former privateers are not all of them, but a number
Speaker 1: of them decided to turn to piracy, and that was
Speaker 1: one part of it. But by the time the war ended,
Speaker 1: Nassau was already full of pirates. They had started moving
Speaker 1: in as soon as the British abandoned it. Privateers hired
Speaker 1: by other governments had moved in as well, including ones
Speaker 1: hired by the British colonial government of Jamaica. The big
Speaker 1: draw Nasau's harbor. It was too shallow for the kinds
Speaker 1: of large warships that the colonial powers were using, but
Speaker 1: it was great for the smaller, faster ships that pirates
Speaker 1: and privateers preferred. This was also true of other harbors
Speaker 1: and bays in the Bahamas. There is a persistent but
Speaker 1: incorrect idea that the name Bahamas comes from the Spanish,
Speaker 1: thanks to Christopher Columbus calling the area Bahamar or shallow sea.
Speaker 1: Two of the pirates who were working out of Nasau
Speaker 1: in the seventeen teens were Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people make it sound like the two of them
Speaker 1: teamed up to spawn an entire world of piracy in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean all by themselves, but they were more rivals
Speaker 1: than friends. They sort of shifted between privateering and piracy
Speaker 1: at different times, and at more than one point one
Speaker 1: of them managed to capture one of the other's prizes.
Speaker 1: It's also likely that there were at least a thousand
Speaker 1: pirates operating in the Bahamas by the time each of
Speaker 1: them turned to piracy, so this was not an ecosystem
Speaker 1: that they just created. At the same time, most of
Speaker 1: the pirate captains operating out of Nassau were connected to
Speaker 1: what are the other of them? Most of the Caribbean
Speaker 1: pirates who were not connected to them were connected to
Speaker 1: George Lother or Edward Lowe, who largely operated out of
Speaker 1: the Bay of Honduras on the coasts of Guatemala and Belize.
Speaker 1: The pirates connected to Horneguld and Jennings became known as
Speaker 1: the Flying Gang, and Nassau was nicknamed the Republic of Pirates.
Speaker 1: The Flying Gang was the largest group of pirates in
Speaker 1: the early decades of the eighteenth century and the biggest
Speaker 1: threat to maritime trade between the Americas and Europe and Africa.
Speaker 1: Pirates associated with the Flying Gang also terrorized local people
Speaker 1: living in the Bahamas, including the few British subjects who
Speaker 1: were still living in and around Nasau, and they attacked
Speaker 1: coastal settlements all across the Caribbean and the Americas. The
Speaker 1: Flying Gang was not really a formalized group with like
Speaker 1: a clear hierarchy and organizational structure. It was more like
Speaker 1: a loose confederation of ships and crews that were all
Speaker 1: working under generally similar ideals. This confederation grew and expanded
Speaker 1: over the course of its activities, so newly established pirate
Speaker 1: crews often started with a couple of men who had
Speaker 1: served together somewhere on the same ship and kept in
Speaker 1: touch and got a ship of their own. If one
Speaker 1: pirate ship captured another vessel, they would either kill its
Speaker 1: crew or put them ashore and then take over that ship,
Speaker 1: sort of splitting the two ships with two crews, bringing
Speaker 1: on the second one and keeping any of the captured
Speaker 1: crew that maybe did want to become pirates. Pirate activity
Speaker 1: also surged after a Spanish fleet was caught in a
Speaker 1: hurricane in seventeen fifteen and driven onto reefs off the
Speaker 1: coast of Florida. These ships were traveling together along with
Speaker 1: a French frigate. Due to fears about all of the
Speaker 1: pirate activity in the area, ten ships, most of them
Speaker 1: laden with silver and gold and other valuable cargo, were
Speaker 1: run aground, capsized, or sunk, with only the French frigate surviving.
Speaker 1: It's likely that at least fifteen hundred sailors died of drowning, injury,
Speaker 1: or dehydration after managing to get ashore. Salvagers rushed to
Speaker 1: this area from all over the Caribbean and eastern North America.
Speaker 1: It was a massive series of shipwrecks in shallow water.
Speaker 1: It was easy pickens for salvagers, and pirates moved into
Speaker 1: salvage from the rexes well and to try to attack
Speaker 1: and plunder the other salvage ships. Of course, Spain really
Speaker 1: objected to all of this, since the rex and their
Speaker 1: cargo were all considered Spanish property, and Spain demanded that
Speaker 1: other nations that had sent the salvage crews withdraw. Governor
Speaker 1: Archibald Hamilton of Jamaica commit Henry Jennings and John Wills
Speaker 1: as privateers. Their commission was ostensibly to attack pirates, but
Speaker 1: Hamilton encouraged them to salvage the Spanish wres he had
Speaker 1: purchased shares from the ships, so he would be getting
Speaker 1: part of that salvage. What Jennings and Wills actually did
Speaker 1: was attack and plunder the storehouse where the Spanish were
Speaker 1: storing the cargo that they had managed to pull out
Speaker 1: of the wreckage. Hamilton eventually ordered the ships that he
Speaker 1: had commissioned to return to Jamaica, and he barred British
Speaker 1: subjects from the Rex site. This just led to more piracy, though,
Speaker 1: as ships that had previously been operating under at least
Speaker 1: his British authority just defied that order and kept doing
Speaker 1: it and also attacking other Caribbean targets in retaliation for
Speaker 1: having been barred from the shipwrecks. Hamilton wound up being
Speaker 1: arrested for his role in all of this in October
Speaker 1: of seventeen sixteen. Some of the most well known pirates
Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century were connected to the Flying Gang.
Speaker 1: One of Hornigold's officers was Edward Teach or Thatch, also
Speaker 1: known very famously as Blackbeard. Another was Samuel Bellamy. Charles
Speaker 1: Vaine had served under Henry Jennings and John Rackham aka
Speaker 1: Calico Jack, had served under Charles Vain and Bonnie and
Speaker 1: Mary Reid, who we have also covered on the show before,
Speaker 1: served on Jack Rackham's ship. And there was also Steed Bonnet,
Speaker 1: who we talked about in twenty thirteen, who was an
Speaker 1: outlier in terms of how people came into piracy. He
Speaker 1: was a wealthy planter who abandoned his wife and family
Speaker 1: to become a pirate and fell in with Blackbeard. Because
Speaker 1: of all of this pirate activity, people started describing Nasa
Speaker 1: as another Madagascar. Madagascar was also a hotbed of pirate
Speaker 1: activity that started in about sixteen fifty. Madagascar was also
Speaker 1: home to the pirate utopia of Libertalia, although that might
Speaker 1: have been more legendary than real. We did an episode
Speaker 1: on that in twenty eighteen, and we are going to
Speaker 1: talk about how the golden Age of piracy in the
Speaker 1: Caribbean ended after we paused for a sponsor break. Through
Speaker 1: the early seventeen hundreds and seventeen teens, a lot of
Speaker 1: people were justifiably worried about piracy, from people living in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean and coastal areas of the mainland, to the
Speaker 1: captains of merchant vessels, to international governments whose economies and
Speaker 1: whose colonial efforts really depended on being able to traverse
Speaker 1: the oceans without being continually attacked and plundered, but for
Speaker 1: a while British authorities in the Caribbean did not do
Speaker 1: very much to try to stop it. That changed in
Speaker 1: seventeen seventeen. On September fifth of that year, King George
Speaker 1: the First issued a proclamation offering to pardon acts of piracy,
Speaker 1: giving the pirates a deadline of the following September fifth
Speaker 1: to surrender themselves to officials in Britain, Ireland or the colonies.
Speaker 1: This proclamation also empowered British sea officers, governors, military commanders,
Speaker 1: and others to quote seize and take such of the
Speaker 1: pirates who shall refuse or neglect to surrender themselves. Accordingly,
Speaker 1: it offered a reward for any such person who discovered
Speaker 1: or seized any pirate who had not surrendered. The award
Speaker 1: was one hundred pounds for commanders of ships or vessels,
Speaker 1: and then it went down incrementally to twenty pounds for
Speaker 1: every private man. There was also a bounty for crews
Speaker 1: who turned on their captains, either delivering those captains to
Speaker 1: the authorities themselves or causing them to be delivered to
Speaker 1: the authorities so that they could be brought to justice
Speaker 1: and convicted. The reward for that was two hundred pounds
Speaker 1: for every such commander. As word of this proclamation spread,
Speaker 1: sub pirates made their way to British governors or other
Speaker 1: authorities to surrender. When Captain Vincent Pierce of the HMS
Speaker 1: Phoenix arrived at New Providence Island in February of seventeen eighteen,
Speaker 1: more than two hundred pirates surrendered to him. Some of
Speaker 1: the pirates who accepted the King's pardon later returned to piracy.
Speaker 1: The book A General History of the Pirates from their
Speaker 1: First rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence to
Speaker 1: the present time, which was published in seventeen twenty four,
Speaker 1: described men going back to piracy quote like the dog
Speaker 1: to the vomit, which is a turn of phrase that
Speaker 1: I really love. But others took the money that they
Speaker 1: had earned as pirates and started new lives in one
Speaker 1: of the many, many parts of territory that the British
Speaker 1: had claimed in the Caribbean and North America that were
Speaker 1: considered thinly settled at that point. Henry Jennings may have
Speaker 1: been one of those people, although his fate after surrendering
Speaker 1: is somewhat unclear. Some of the former pirates turned pirate
Speaker 1: hunter after being pardoned. One of those was Benjamin Hornigold.
Speaker 1: He tried to bring in Charles Vain, but Vain's ship
Speaker 1: was too fast. Some of his other efforts were more successful,
Speaker 1: and on December ninth, seventeen eighteen, nine pirates Hornigold had
Speaker 1: captured were put on trial in Nassau. They all pleaded
Speaker 1: not guilty, and one of them, named John Hips, was
Speaker 1: given a reprieve when he testified that he had only
Speaker 1: been a pirate because he was forced to. Everyone else
Speaker 1: was found guilty and hanged. Eventually, Hornigold had earned enough
Speaker 1: trust that he was tasked with voyaging to Mexico to
Speaker 1: try to establish a new trade route. But the ship
Speaker 1: that he was on wrecked in seventeen nineteen, and Hornigold died,
Speaker 1: either drowned in the wreck or after managing to make
Speaker 1: it to an island. And of course, there were some
Speaker 1: pirates who refused to surrender. One of the most dramatic
Speaker 1: was Charles Vain, who accepted the king's pardon and then
Speaker 1: just turned pirate again. Vain was a Jacobite, a supporter
Speaker 1: of the Stewart claim to the British throne in the
Speaker 1: seventeen teens, he corresponded with Jacobites in Britain, proposing that
Speaker 1: he and his ships be put in service to James
Speaker 1: Francis Edward Stewart. The antagonism between England and Spain was
Speaker 1: also interconnected with the Jacobite movement, with Spain later backing
Speaker 1: a Jacobite uprising. That is another way that these greater
Speaker 1: international disputes were tangled up in the evolution of piracy.
Speaker 1: In seventeen eighteen, when new colonial governor Woods Rogers arrived
Speaker 1: in Nassau, there were British ships with him and they
Speaker 1: trapped Charles Vain and his ships in the harbor. So
Speaker 1: Vain filled one of his ships with gunpowder, set it
Speaker 1: on fire, and pointed it at the awaiting British fleet.
Speaker 1: Vain managed to escape as the British ships tried to
Speaker 1: evade the fire ship that he had created. He left
Speaker 1: several ships loaded with cargo behind in the harbor. Other pirates,
Speaker 1: probably hoping that their own crimes would be overlooked, reported
Speaker 1: this illicit cargo, which the British impounded. Vain continued attacking
Speaker 1: and harassing ships, including working with Blackbeard off the coast
Speaker 1: of North Carolina. He was eventually shipwrecked and captured in
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty and then hanged in seventeen twenty one. Woods
Speaker 1: Rogers was another big part of the effort to put
Speaker 1: down piracy in the Caribbean. From seventeen oh eight to
Speaker 1: seventeen eleven, he had been on a round the world
Speaker 1: privateering expedition that also included slave trading and anti piracy
Speaker 1: efforts around Madagascar. On this voyage, he encountered Alexander Selkirk,
Speaker 1: who had asked to be put ashore off the coast
Speaker 1: of Chile after a disagreement with his captain. Selkirk was
Speaker 1: stranded there for four years and became the inspiration for
Speaker 1: Daniel Dafoe's Robinson Crusoe. Rogers had earned about fourteen thousand
Speaker 1: pounds during this voyage and had written a book about it,
Speaker 1: which is called A Cruising Voyage round the World, and
Speaker 1: that came out in seventeen twelve. So Rogers wasn't just
Speaker 1: the governor. He essentially owned the Bahamas. He signed a
Speaker 1: lease on the islands for twenty one years. He was
Speaker 1: tasked with forming a government, rebuilding the Fort of Nasau,
Speaker 1: and getting the colony functioning and was suppressing piracy, and
Speaker 1: he carried a copy of that royal proclamation with him.
Speaker 1: By the time he arrived on July twenty fifth, seventeen eighteen,
Speaker 1: a lot of the most notorious pirates had already accepted
Speaker 1: the King's pardon or maybe been killed, although the ones
Speaker 1: that had not the ones that had returned to piracy
Speaker 1: were causing ongoing issues. It is very tricky to put
Speaker 1: an exact end date on the golden age of piracy
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, but between all of the surrenders, hangings
Speaker 1: in shipwrecks, and the efforts of woods rogers to regain
Speaker 1: control of Nasau and the rest of the Bahamas, most
Speaker 1: of the pirates were either pardoned or dead by seventeen
Speaker 1: twenty one. That included Samuel Bellamy, who was killed in
Speaker 1: a shipwreck in seventeen seventeen, Blackbeard, who was killed in
Speaker 1: a fight with the British Navy in seventeen eighteen, Steed
Speaker 1: Bonnet who was hanged in seventeen eighteen, and Jack Rackham
Speaker 1: who was hanged in seventeen twenty and Bonnie and Mary
Speaker 1: Reid were both sent to prison rather than being hanged,
Speaker 1: and their fate after that is not clear. The end
Speaker 1: of the age of piracy had a huge economic impact
Speaker 1: on the Bahamas, and it might not be what you're expecting.
Speaker 1: Rogers had plans to start up a whaling industry and
Speaker 1: to reinvigorate the salt trade. But while piracy had been
Speaker 1: an active threat all over the Caribbean and all across
Speaker 1: the Atlantic, fewer pirate ships meant less maritime traffic overall.
Speaker 1: A lot of the time, pirates' illicit goods had also
Speaker 1: been a lot cheaper than goods that were acquired and
Speaker 1: shipped in under legitimate means. Rogers had that twenty one
Speaker 1: year lease on the Bahamas, but he wasn't able to
Speaker 1: make it profitable. He became exhausted and sick and eventually
Speaker 1: went back to England, where he wound up in a
Speaker 1: debtors prison. But things were apparently even worse under his successor,
Speaker 1: and he was reinstalled as governor in seventeen twenty nine.
Speaker 1: He continued in that role until his death in Nasau
Speaker 1: on July fifteenth, seventeen thirty two. Of course, Nasau and
Speaker 1: the Bahamas have a whole history after this point. For centuries,
Speaker 1: Britain maintained a white minority rule over a predominantly black
Speaker 1: population largely descended from enslaved people who have been brought
Speaker 1: to the Caribbean. An independence movement evolved in the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: and the Bahamas was granted limited self government in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty five and broader self government in nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 1: The Commonwealth of the Bahamas was recognized as a sovereign
Speaker 1: state on July tenth, nineteen seventy three. And that so
Speaker 1: much piracy? Do you have so much listener mail? I
Speaker 1: do have listener mail. It is from Andrea. And Andrea's
Speaker 1: email was titled perfect Timing. Andrea wrote, Dear Holly and Tracy,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to send my thanks for your incredibly
Speaker 1: thoughtful and thought provoking subjects. I just returned from a
Speaker 1: trip to Boston where we visited Bunker Hill. I did
Speaker 1: see the blacard with the quote about the suffrage movement.
Speaker 1: I've planned trips with specific stops to previous podcast subjects,
Speaker 1: including this most recent trip. I was able to visit
Speaker 1: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as well. I appreciated knowing
Speaker 1: about the unique collection in the art heist. This made
Speaker 1: history and art more relevant to me. I have a
Speaker 1: PhD in SYMHC and have enjoyed listening to you for
Speaker 1: long car rides and commutes. I would suggest George Eastman
Speaker 1: as a podcast topic. He was a fascinating person. Holly
Speaker 1: is nodding. For those of you who cannot see shortlist, shortlist, shortlist.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, Holly, we should reagree about that because I
Speaker 1: might have some resources for you, okay, or if you're
Speaker 1: already on it, it's on your shirt. I'm got on it.
Speaker 1: I just as long as he happened. Yeah, I know
Speaker 1: of some potential things. I'm including pictures of my adopted
Speaker 1: kat Uriel. She is quite the lady. She was adopted
Speaker 1: at age twelve when my brother moved overseas and could
Speaker 1: not take her with him. She's truly spoiled in our house.
Speaker 1: Thank you again for your delightful podcasts. Sincerely, Andrea. Since
Speaker 1: we are not recording this from our laptops today, I
Speaker 1: do not have the pictures to describe, but I did
Speaker 1: look at them before we flew to the Bahamas and
Speaker 1: they are indeed adorable. So thank you so much, Andrea
Speaker 1: for this email. If you would like to email us,
Speaker 1: we are at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. You
Speaker 1: can find our show notes, including links to all the
Speaker 1: resources that we used in this episode, at our website,
Speaker 1: which is Missed Inhistory dot com, and you can subscribe
Speaker 1: to the show on the iHeartRadio app, but anywhere else
Speaker 1: you like to get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in
Speaker 1: History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.