Black Sails - Season 4: By Billy's Beard! - The Something Awful Forums

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socialsecurity: Aug 30, 2003

meristem posted:

Eh, it's no more of a stretch than to assume that pirates were any sort of ideologically-minded revolutionaries. Or that they gave a gently caress about slavery.

You talk a lot about this and it's weird obsession about something you are incredibly wrong about, Pirates were political in fact a number of them were ex-slaves, slave ships were considered prime pirate targets because they were well stocked and they could recruit many from them.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 14:10

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 10:00

socialsecurity: Aug 30, 2003

Falukorv posted:

I think you are overstating this, a few were taken on as crew if they were useful, often relegated to the most menial tasks. Often they were just left out at sea or taken to be sold.

We're talking about white early modern British men for the most part, some of who have previously crewed slave ships where they treated Africans as nothing but property.

quote:

Origins[edit]
Geographically, they "left behind little or no property and few documents by their own hands."[1]:51 Most of the pirates were from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Of that population approximately one-quarter were linked to British port cities like Bristol, Liverpool, and Plymouth. Approximately one-quarter of the populations were associated with men of the West Indies and North America. The others "came from other parts of the world such as Holland, France, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, and several parts of Africa." [1]:52

Howard Pyle's doodle of the carriage of a treasure chest by two pirates, a caucasian and a black man, as they are led by pirate captain William Kidd
Piracy "became one of the most common male occupations" for Africans and African-Americans in the early 19th century. Black sailors filled about one-fifth of the population at various sea havens. Becoming a pirate offered a choice of other occupations for African-Americans that could improve their conditions.[18]:4, 2, 69 "Africans and African Americans both free and enslaved were numerous and active on board pirate vessels."[1]:54 Some chose piracy because the only other option was slavery.[18]:12�13 Some black pirates were escaped slaves. Boarding a pirate vessel became a way to escape to the Atlantic North undetected. Escaped slave Frederick Douglass disguised himself in "sailor's garb," and "was able to travel undetected to the North and his freedom."[19]:26 As crewmen, blacks made up part of the "pirate vanguard."[1]:54�55 They also worked the seafaring trades of "ship building, caulking, and sail making."[19]:25

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The captives were not the only ones who were mistreated on slave ships, as Rediker points out the lash "operated without regard to race, age, gender, law, or humanity. Many of the sailors were beaten mercilessly when they would refuse to beat the slaves as harshly as the captain wanted or at all. A sailor could make roughly one to one and a half thousand dollars in current pay, which back in the eighteenth century was a fairly large sum of money for a single trip.

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As capitalism developed as an economic system in early modern Europe, overseas colonies became increasingly important in the Atlantic trade system.[14]:10 Labor-intensive colonial plantations generated a need to find a stable, long-term labor force. Indentured servants posed a problem in that they had legal rights and could eventually become a competing force. The advantages of slave labor in comparison with the disadvantages of indentured servitude contributed to the growth of the European slave trade.[15]:144�148 Pirates were a bane to English attempts to gain supremacy on the African coast. They disrupted the flow of labor and capital by attacking, capturing and sometimes destroying slave vessels. Pirate captains often absorbed captured slaves into their crews, and blacks, both African and African American made up a substantial part of the pirate vanguard.[1]:54[16]:169�170 As long as pirates were actively disrupting the slave trade, they posed a threat to England's dominance in the Atlantic system.[16]:172

1/5 of Pirates were freed slaves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Atlantic_World

# ¿ Mar 25, 2017 00:23

socialsecurity: Aug 30, 2003

Dreylad posted:

As always with this series the bookends of the season are always the best.

The whole freedom stuff seems to trying to call forward to the American Revolution especially since it's railing against British rule. That feels hamfisted, even if that's not what the writers intend.

It's worth noting that regardless of how silly the pirate revolution feels, it is going to fail horribly and never really gets off the ground so it's not like they're trying to portray this as some kind of incredible moment for freedom in history.

You know multiple colonies rebeled in the Carribean before the American Revolution right?

# ¿ Mar 27, 2017 22:01

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