PIRATES OF THE 1800s

THE ROOTS OF PIRACY: CHAPTER  #  1  1. - We already know what occupation is regarded as the world's oldest profession, but if we try to rank the longevity of the employment which has enjoyed an impressive lifespan, piracy might well come in at a close second. The Golden Age of Piracy arose from a time when the power of Europe were locked in a fierce battle for navaland mercantile supremacy, and as the fortunes of the nations ebbed and flowed, so did piracy. The popularity of pirate legend did not surface when Johnny Depp and Disney combined creative forcers to create cinema's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise; even in classical tales, piracy takes a place of literary celebrity. Homer refers to pirates in the Iliad and odyssey. Piracy was even, according to Plutarch, a somewhat glamorous option from men of high standing who were seeking adventure and profit at a time when merely to stay at home was to forsake a chance at wealth and glory. Pirates have been an economi...

FROM THE BARBARY COAST TO BLACKBEARD #  1  > Pirates dominate movie box office profits, they are the theme park entertainment, and they occupy a place in popular culture that has outlasted the era when they originally ruled the seas. Contemporary audiences who are safe from the pistols and cutlasses of the men who sailed the Caribbean, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans to prey upon ships and claim their cargo may find it hard to reconcile the perceived glamor of Captain Jack Sparrow with the authentic blood-lust and greed of the real pirates who killed without conscience, kidnapped innocent victims for ransom, and ravaged, bribed, and robbed their way into legend. Tragut Rais, Grace O'Malley, William Kidd, Blackbeard and their colleagues were dangerous adventurers who lived at a time when piracy was an economic enterprise which yielded both wealth and hangman's noose. Most pirates had a short life before they were captured and executed. A few lucky ones did die of natural cau...