Book Report: The Republic of Pirates

    The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard is about The Golden Age of piracy in the 1700’s.  Woodard tells many stories of many different pirates and tells who they truly were.  He writes about what the captains and their crews had gained and what they had destroyed.  He tells the story of the “Flying Gang” which consisted of three popular pirates who were strategic thieves.  Woodard makes you grateful that pirates are gone, especially the most terrible ones of them all.  Although many people think that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies show how pirate life was, The Republic of Pirates gives you a better idea, and the truth.

        The Republic of Pirates is about the “Golden Age of Pirates”.  The book starts off with “The Pirates Tale” of Henry Avery and how he started piracy.   It mainly tells it through the lives of three pirates in the “Flying Gang” by the names of Samuel Bellamy (Black Sam), Edward Thatch (Blackbeard), and Charles Vane.  Bellamy and Thatch were friends who together attacked nearly 300 ships.  They met many years before they were captains because they had the same mentor, Benjamin Hornigold, who founded The Pirate Republic.  Blackbeard was one of the most dangerous pirates in the Caribbean.  The two of them were also good acquaintances with Vane. Woodes Rogers also had a big role in the book.  Rogers was interested in making piracy coming to an end.  Rogers had many encounters with pirates who had ran away and started making strategies on how to defeat them. King George wanted to support Rogers so he sent navy ships to go with him on his conquests.  Many other pirates decided to help him including Hornigold.  Rogers’ quest was successful; he ended the Pirate Republic and got rid of all the pirate crews all around the world.  Although he ended piracy he ended up in prison for not paying all the loans that he made to get rid of pirates.  Right before the Republic of Pirates came to an end Vane’s ship was caught in a hurricane and was destroyed.  Vane was caught and sent to prison when he washed up to shore, a year later he was hung.  Blackbeard lived a normal life for awhile after The Republic of Pirates came to an end, but Lt. Robert Maynard found him and got into a huge fight and in the end Blackbeard was killed.  Bellamy died three years before piracy came to an end.  He was caught in a terrible storm that only seven men survived from who a couple days later ended up being executed.  For the most part all of those who were involved in piracy did not get a very happy ending.

        I chose to read about pirates because I have been intrigued by pirates for awhile now. Nobody knows for sure everything that happened in the age of piracy, which makes it so interesting. We only know bits and pieces of what actually happened and what type of events took place. Pirates affected a lot of things back then. They affected the economy hugely with all of the goods that they stole. They destroyed towns and put together countries like Belize.  They would put many merchants out of work and put many people in general in distress.