On the account : piracy and the Americas, 1766-1835 / Joseph Gibbs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gibbs, Joseph, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pirates--America--History--Sources.

Pirates.

Piracy--Atlantic Coast (U.S.)--Sources.

Piracy.

Piracy--Caribbean Area--History--Sources.

Pirates--Atlantic Coast (U.S.)--History--Sources.

Pirates--Caribbean Area--History--Sources.

Mutiny--United States--History--Sources.

Mutiny.

History.

United States.

Caribbean Area.

America.

Genre:

Sources.

Physical Description:

xii, 249 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Eastbourne ; Portland OR : Sussex Academic Press, [2012]

Summary:

In addition to being commercialized and romanticized, piracy's history has also been distorted, with many works straying far from the facts recorded in the Age of Sail. In this book, author Joseph Gibbs goes back to many of the original materials about those who went "on the account" (a classic euphemism for piracy) to deliver an engaging, closely interpreted anthology of seven decades of primary sources. The text comprises original monographs, broadsides, trial records, newspaper articles, and official reports that deal with piracy in and involving the Americas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Joseph Gibbs annotates and explains these records in order to clarify the era's historical, legal, literary, and nautical references.

Along the way readers will experience violent mutinies, vicious sea battles, anti-piracy raids on Louisiana islands and Latin American coasts, and the United States' first sustained encounter with the Barbary Corsairs. They will also catch glimpses of maritime brigands as remarkable as any that walked the decks of piracy's earlier "golden age" and encounter the naval officers and sailors who strove to bring them to rough justice. Enhanced with period maps and illustrations, On the Account provides an enlightening introduction to piracy's original canon as it emerged in the era of the quill pen and hand-operated press. Book jacket.

Contents:

Veterans in blood and murder : the mutiny aboard the Polly and the trial of Joseph Andrews (1766, 1769)

"All Tory by God" : mutiny aboard the St. Louis

"A heart hard enough to kill a man" : the Eliza mutiny and the trial of ¿three foreigners¿ (1799-1800)

"The most abject slavery" : the United States and the Barbary pirates (1793-1804)

"A horrible crime to think upon" : mutiny on the George Washington

"The greatest villains that ever blackened the human character" : the privateers of the Gulf and Caribbean (1814-1821)

"They took to their heels" : Kearny's enterprise at Cape Antonio (1821-1822)

"Her red flag [was] nailed to the mast" : the campaign against piracy in the Gulf and Caribbean (1822-1825)

"No evidence of a contrite heart" : the Vineyard mutiny and the piracy confessions of Charles Gibbs (1830-1831)

"Demons in the shape of men" : the taking of the Mexican and its aftermath (1832-1835).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781845194765

1845194764

OCLC:

707230455