Piracy and Puritans

Term Paper # 96770

History > U.S. American Society, 1640-1750
History > U.S. Colonization of North America
Religion and Theology > Christianity

Piracy and Puritans

An examination of piracy as it was perceived in colonial New England, particularly by the Puritans.

3,025 words () | 9 sources | MLA | 2006 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper examines piracy as it was perceived in colonial New England. It specifically examines the interaction between Puritans and pirates and provides a history of piracy in the colonies. It then looks at the conceptual difference between "piracy" and "privateering." The paper
examines the sudden Puritan objections to piracy circa 1700 (even though it had made the colonies very wealthy).

Table of Contents:
Hardened In Their Sin
Pursued By Evil
The Death of Piracy

From the Paper:

"Piracy must be considered one of the world's oldest professions. Ever since civilizations have settled near coastlines, building ships to move goods and find cultures foreign to their own, there have been men (and women) desperate enough to take to the sea to become pursuers of great fortune. The colonies of North America are not an exception. They had their share of pirates as well, the most infamous becoming revered legends, while the less prosperous found their way to the back pages of the first colonial newspapers, mentioned as having merely died by the noose with little pomp or fanfare. The matter-of-fact nature of colonial writings towards piracy makes it clear that the practice was widespread, as common as any bank robbery or mugging might be considered today. That does not mean, however, that colonists were willing to accept the actions of pirates without retribution."

Sample of Sources Used:

"An ACT for Restraining and Punishing Privateers and Pyrates." 10 September, 1692. Printed in New York by William Bradford, 1693.
French, Phillip (Earl of Bellomont). "His Excellency, The Earl of Bellomont, His Speech To the Representatives of his Majesties Province of New-York, the 19th of May, 1698." 19 May 1698. Printed in New York by William Bradford, 1698.
Mather, Cotton. "The End of Piracy" Printed by John Allen in Cornhill, 1717.
Mather, Cotton. "Uttered in a brief Discourse Occasioned, by a Tragical Spectacle, in a Number of Miserables under a Sentence of Death for Piracy." 22 June 1704. Printed by Timothy Green in Boston, 1704.
Mather, Cotton. "Warnings to Them that make Hafte to be Rich." 27 August 1717. Printed in Boston 1717.