A General History of the Pyrates: From Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time
1724
A General History of the Pyrates: From Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time
1724
This book invented the pirate as we know him. Long before Jack Sparrow or Treasure Island, Captain Charles Johnson's 1724 masterpiece gave birth to the entire mythology of the Golden Age of piracy, the black flag, the parrot, the wooden leg, the code of honor among thieves. What we think we know about pirates, from Blackbeard's theatrics to Anne Bonny's defiance, flows from these pages. The book contains the first recorded use of "Jolly Roger" and popularized the skull-and-crossbones design that still haunts our imagination. Yet here's the paradox: this is not history as we understand it. The author blended fact, rumor, and pure invention so skillfully that scholars still debate how much is true and how much is seductive storytelling. <br><br>The General History chronicles the rise and fall of pirate captains who ruled the Caribbean in the chaotic years after the War of Spanish Succession. It offers vivid accounts of Blackbeard's terror, Calico Jack's doomed crew, and the remarkable Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who fought and loved as equals among men. Beyond the blood and plunder, the book reveals something unexpected: early experiments in democratic governance, where pirates elected their captains and shared loot by written codes. These outlaws, fleeing the oppression of navies and merchant companies, created their own fragile societies on forgotten islands. The text argues passionately, sometimes sympathetically, against the hypocrisy of "legitimate" maritime powers that preyed on the weak while calling themselves civilized.
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“Num trabalho honesto", costumava dizer [Bartholomew Roberts], "o que se vê é gente magra, salários baixos e muito trabalho. Neste daqui, o que temos é fartura e saciedade, prazer e alegria, liberdade e poder. E quem não iria fazer o prato da balança pesar para este lado, quando tudo o que se arrisca daqui, na pior das hipóteses, é apenas um olhar ou dois de tristeza, no instante em que se sufoca? Não, meu lema será sempre por uma vida feliz e curta.””
— Daniel Defoe
“Nor is this all, he has been guilty of worse villany than this, and that is of drinking of small beer; and your Lordship knows, there was never a sober fellow but what was a rogue””
— Daniel Defoe
“the Sea is wide enough for us all, we need not quarrel for Elbow-room: Its Stores are infinite, and will ever reward the Labourer.””
— Daniel Defoe
“He was one of those inspired folk who would be quite capable of spelling “schooner” with three variations in as many lines. In this edition the spelling has been more or less modernized.””
— Daniel Defoe
“But, perhaps, if there was less Law, there might be more Justice, than in some other Courts; for, if the civil Law be a Law of universal Reason, judging of the Rectitude, or Obliquity of Mens Actions, every Man of common Sense is endued with a Portion of it, at least sufficient to make him distinguish Right from Wrong, or what the Civilians call, Malum in se.””
— Daniel Defoe
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Defoe, Daniel. A General History of the Pyrates: From Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time. Lex, lex-books.com/book/a-general-history-of-the-pyrates-from-their-first-rise-and-settlement-in-the-isl-8f47301b-1bf0-45dc-91dc-5c36ddde6279.Defoe, D. (1724). A General History of the Pyrates: From Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-general-history-of-the-pyrates-from-their-first-rise-and-settlement-in-the-isl-8f47301b-1bf0-45dc-91dc-5c36ddde6279Defoe, Daniel. A General History of the Pyrates: From Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-general-history-of-the-pyrates-from-their-first-rise-and-settlement-in-the-isl-8f47301b-1bf0-45dc-91dc-5c36ddde6279.
