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HIST 2300 January 30, 2017 (Pirate life: harsh and short (Tenuous survival…
HIST 2300 January 30, 2017
Pirate life: harsh and short
Tenuous survival
Environment, supplies, emergencies
Battle with captured ships ( and each other)
Brutual society
Beatings, whippings, executions
executions if captured
Pirate Democracy
Captains elected
Shares of "plunder" by rank
Economics of Piracy
More often supplies than "treasure"
Kept pirate ships in action
(water, food, weapons, liquor, ships)
Seldom any "treasure" on ships
What was taken: used or sold
Important to economy of Caribbean and Americas
Reality of Pirate attacks
Frequent
As the western atlantic settled
Seldom killed crew
Surrender assured survival - good for pirates too
Public Executions
Widely advertised, widely attended
Public found it entertaining
Crime is punished (moral dimension)
Spectacle ("dancing the hempen jig")
Privateering and the suppression
"legalized" piracy
Private ships authorized to go after enemies
Usually during wartime
Gives the government "deniability"
Problem:
Word of end of war slow to get to ships
Impossible to entirely control private ships
Gibbeting of Capt. Kidd of 1701 (England)
We caught the biggest, most skilled pirate
We are cracking down on pirates
Imperial policy and economics
The example of Spain and Churro sheep
Rules of importation
Cultural change introduction
Cultural change driven by economic policy
How this policy affects life in the US today
Onate and Churro Sheep, 1698
Merino not allowed to colonies
Coarse churro
Clothing, blankets
Navajo acquire sheep
Churro and the U.S. Government policy
As a tool to force Navajo compliance
1868: Reservations
1934: "modernization"
2012: An engine of economic revitalization