A Pirate's Life No More

The Pardoned Pirates of the Bahamas

Steven C Hahn author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Georgia Press

Publishing:15th May '25

£96.95

This title is due to be published on 15th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

A Pirate's Life No More cover

A collective biography of some former eighteenth-century mariners in the Caribbean

In 1718 the British crown in the Bahamas pardoned 209 mariners accused of piracy.

In 1718 the British crown in the Bahamas pardoned 209 mariners accused of piracy. In A Pirate's Life No More, Steven C. Hahn explores the lives of these "retired” pirates. While there are a number of "famous" names on that list—Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane, and Palsgrave Williams, for example—the vast majority of the pardoned are "mostly nobodies." By focusing holistically on pirates—and on the pirates who aren’t famous—the book reclaims their humanity, connects the story of piracy at sea with the land-based communities that sometimes supported it, and illuminates the entangled histories of far-flung places in the Atlantic world. This study reveals that, for most individuals, forays into piracy were fleeting and opportunistic. Moreover, class, age, and regional divisions beset the pirate community, thereby precluding adherence to any single ideology justifying their actions. The pardon was most attractive to mariners possessing greater social and economic capital, which explains why so many of them were able to return to their homes and quickly return to honest maritime work.

In addition to the standard sources employed by maritime historians, Hahn utilizes local administrative records from Britain and its American colonies, such as property, court, and church records. In so doing, he sheds new light on the ordinary activities in which the sailors were engaged when not involved in piracy and explores how they coped in the Bahamas and elsewhere after being pardoned. What emerges in this collective biography, then, are pirates who were mariners—of course—but also husbands, fathers, parishioners, and property owners.

Piracy enthusiasts will love these stories, and will enjoy getting a 'slice of life' glimpse of real-life piracy.

-- Guy Chet * author of The Ocean is a Wilderness: Atlantic Piracy and the Limits of State Authority *

It’s not easy to tell a new story about the golden age of piracy, but Hahn has done it with dogged detective work in the archives and a deep understanding of what makes these ordinary pirates so extraordinary for readers today.

-- David Head * coeditor of A Republic of Scoundrels: The Schemers, Intriguers, and Adventurers who Created a New American Nation *

A Pirate's Life No More has a clear, significant purpose that will advance our understanding of Caribbean piracy and its place in the early modern Atlantic world.

-- David Head * coeditor of A Republic of Scoundrels: The Schemers, Intriguers, and Adventurers who Created a New American Nati

ISBN: 9780820373430

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

366 pages