Charleston and the Golden Age of Piracy PDF Download

Author: Christopher Byrd Downey
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614239134
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
From its earliest days, Charleston was a vital port of call and center of trade, which left it vulnerable to seafaring criminals. The Golden Age of Piracy, encompassing roughly the first quarter of the eighteenth century, produced some of the most outrageous characters in maritime history. The daring exploits of these infamous plunderers made thievery widespread along Charleston's waterfront, but determined citizens would meet the pirate threat head-on. From the "Gentleman Pirate," Stede Bonnet, to Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and famed pirate hunter and statesman William Rhett, the waters surrounding the Holy City have a history as rocky and wild as the high seas. Join author and tour guide Christopher Byrd Downey as he tells the tales of Charleston during piracy's greatest reign.

Author: Christopher Byrd Downey
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 9781609495404
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Hundreds of pirates traversed the waters of the Atlantic during America's colonial period, but few had a more adventurous tale than Stede Bonnet. Originally a wealthy plantation owner from Barbados, Bonnet abandoned his wife and children in 1717 to set sail on the pirate ship Revenge. He soon fell into company with Blackbeard in the Bahamas and headed for America. In May 1718, they arrived in Charleston and held the entire city hostage in a daring siege. Bonnet was eventually captured in North Carolina and transported back to Charleston, where he was brought to justice and executed on December 10, 1718. Join local pirate tour guide Captain Christopher Byrd Downey as he recounts the swashbuckling life of the most infamous pirate to ever darken the Holy City's waters.

Author: Eric Jay Dolin
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 163149211X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
With surprising tales of vicious mutineers, imperial riches, and high-seas intrigue, Black Flags, Blue Waters is “rumbustious enough for the adventure-hungry” (Peter Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle). Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age” - spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s - when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. “Deftly blending scholarship and drama” (Richard Zacks), best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, Dolin depicts the star pirates of this period, among them the towering Blackbeard, the ill-fated Captain Kidd, and sadistic Edward Low, who delighted in torturing his prey. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Black Flags, Blue Waters is a “tour de force history” (Michael Pierce, Midwestern Rewind) of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.

Author: Christopher Byrd Downey
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439669155
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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An in-depth history of Poe’s time spent in the South Carolina port city where he secretly enlisted in the United States Army. Edgar Allan Poe arrived in Charleston in November 1827 chased by storms, both literal and figurative. Some of the author’s previous indiscretions caused him to enlist in the U.S. Army six months earlier under the pseudonym Edgar A. Perry. The more than one year that Poe spent stationed at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island has been shrouded in mystery for nearly two centuries because Poe deliberately tried to hide his stint in the army. But despite Poe’s deceptions, the influences and impressions of the Lowcountry permeated his life and writing, providing the setting for Poe’s most popular and widely read short story during his lifetime, “The Gold-Bug,” and perhaps providing the inspiration for the real Annabel Lee. Author Christopher Byrd Downey details the hidden history of Poe in Charleston.

Author: Angus Konstam
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 0470309202
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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"A thorough, exciting examination of 18th-century pirate life,with wonderful details." --Publishers Weekly "Interesting and exciting . . . a thoroughly enjoyable chronicle of an interesting life and interesting era." --Booklist The definitive biography of history'smost fearsome and famous pirate Of all the colorful cutthroats who scoured the seas in search of plunder during the Golden Age of Piracy in the early eighteenth century, none was more ferocious or notorious than Blackbeard. As unforgettable as his savage career was, much of Blackbeard's life has been shrouded in mystery--until now. Drawing on vivid descriptions of Blackbeard's attacks from his rare surviving victims, pirate expert Angus Konstam traces Blackbeard's career from its beginnings to his final defeat in a tremendous sea battle near his base at Ocracoke Island. Presenting dramatic accounts of the pirate's very effective tactics and his reputation for cruelty, Konstam offers a fascinating examination of the life and business of piracy and the lure of this brutal and bloody trade.

Author: David Head
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820353272
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Twelve authors shed new light on the true history and enduring mythology of seventeenth– and eighteenth–century pirates in this anthology of scholarly essays. The twelve entries in The Golden Age of Piracy discuss why pirates thrived in the seas of the New World, how pirates operated their plundering ventures, how governments battled piracy, and when and why piracy declined. Separating Hollywood myth from historical fact, these essays bring the real pirates of the Caribbean to life with a level of rigor and insight rarely applied to the subject. The Golden Age of Piracy also delves into the enduring status of pirates as pop culture icons. Audiences have devoured stories about cutthroats such as Blackbeard and Henry Morgan since before Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island. By looking at the ideas of gender and sexuality surrounding pirate stories, the renewed interest in hunting for pirate treasure, and the construction of pirate myths, the contributing authors tell a new story about the dangerous men, and a few dangerous women, who terrorized the high seas. Contributors: Douglas R. Burgess, Guy Chet, John A. Coakley, Carolyn Eastman, Adam Jortner, Peter T. Leeson, Margarette Lincoln, Virginia W. Lunsford, Kevin P. McDonald, Carla Gardina Pestana, Matthew Taylor Raffety, and David Wilson.

Author: Margaret Middleton Rivers Eastman
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614235317
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
From the Lowcountry's first recorded duel to old-fashioned summers at the 'hottest spot in town", these pages will captivate you with stories of people, events and places that have all but vanished from memory. Find out the real history behind some of Charleston's beloved mansions and learn about the early plantations and their owners. Join the authors as they relate the riots and romance, the preservation and politics - and even a ghost story - from Charleston's hidden history.

Author: Colin Woodard
Publisher: Pan
ISBN: 1743516061
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
In the early eighteenth century a number of the great pirate captains, including Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach and 'Black Sam' Bellamy, joined forces. This infamous 'Flying Gang' was more than simply a thieving band of brothers. Many of its members had come to piracy as a revolt against conditions in the merchant fleet and in the cities and plantations in the Old and New Worlds. Inspired by notions of self-government, they established a crude but distinctive form of democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which indentured servants were released and leaders chosen or deposed by a vote. They were ultimately overcome by their archnemesis, Captain Woodes Rogers - a merchant fleet owner and former privateer - and the brief but glorious Republic of Pirates came to an end. Colin Woodard's account is vividly told, full of incident and adventure, and brings to life this virtually unexplored chapter in the Golden Age of Piracy.

Author: Graham Thomas
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1848848404
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This is the story of a Welshman who became one of the most ruthless and brutal buccaneers of the golden age of piracy. His name was Captain Sir Henry Morgan and, unlike his contemporaries, he was not hunted down and killed or captured by the authorities. Instead he was considered a hero in England and given a knighthood as well as being made governor of Jamaica. As Graham Thomas reveals in this fresh biography of this complex and intriguing character, Morgan was an exceptional military leader whose prime motivation was to amass as much wealth as he could by sacking and plundering settlements, towns and cities up and down the Spanish Main.??As featured on BBC Radio Wiltshire and in Cardiff Times.

Author: Mark G. Hanna
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469617951
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Analyzing the rise and subsequent fall of international piracy from the perspective of colonial hinterlands, Mark G. Hanna explores the often overt support of sea marauders in maritime communities from the inception of England's burgeoning empire in the 1570s to its administrative consolidation by the 1740s. Although traditionally depicted as swashbuckling adventurers on the high seas, pirates played a crucial role on land. Far from a hindrance to trade, their enterprises contributed to commercial development and to the economic infrastructure of port towns. English piracy and unregulated privateering flourished in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean because of merchant elites' active support in the North American colonies. Sea marauders represented a real as well as a symbolic challenge to legal and commercial policies formulated by distant and ineffectual administrative bodies that undermined the financial prosperity and defense of the colonies. Departing from previous understandings of deep-sea marauding, this study reveals the full scope of pirates' activities in relation to the landed communities that they serviced and their impact on patterns of development that formed early America and the British Empire.