The Republic of Pirates Quotes

“I am a free Prince, and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world as he who has a hundred ships at sea and an army of 100,000 men in the field."
-Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down

“fear can be the most powerful of weapons.”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“On September 29, as they closed on her at the Capes of Virginia, Blackbeard donned his new, terrifying battle attire. He wore a silk sling over his shoulders, to which were attached “three brace of pistols, hanging in holsters like bandaliers.” Under his hat, he tied on lit fuses, allowing some of them to dangle down on each side of his face, surrounding it with a halo of smoke and fire. So adorned, a contemporary biographer reported, “his eyes naturally looking fierce and wild, [that he] made altogether such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from Hell to look more frightful.”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic of Pirates: Being the true and surprising story of the Caribbean pirates and the man who brought them down

“Damn ye, you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security, for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery,” he resumed, his anger building with every word. “But Damn ye altogether! Damn them [as] a pack of crafty Rascals. And you [captains and seamen], who serve them, [as] a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls! They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference [between us]: they rob the”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“Aboard the crowded ships, the men grew restless, and some began asking why their promised semiannual salary payment had not yet been made. They sent a petition to Sir James Houblon, asking that salaries be paid out to the sailors or their wives, as previously agreed. In response, Houblon told his agent to put several petitioners in irons and lock them in the ships’ dank brigs. Such reaction did not put the sailors’ minds at rest. While visiting other vessels in La Coruna’s sleepy harbor, some of the married sailors were able to send word back to their wives in England. A letter informed the women of their husbands’ plight and urged them to meet Houblon in person to demand the wages they no doubt needed to survive. The women then confronted Houblon, a wealthy merchant and founding deputy governor of the Bank of England, whose brother was chief governor of the Bank and would soon become Lord Mayor of London. His response chilled them to the bone. The ships and their men were now under the king of Spain’s control and as far as he was concerned the king could “pay them or hang them if he pleased.”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“Even so, dozens of blacks did escape each year. They established rogue settlements in the mountains, where they grew crops, raised families, practiced their religions, and trained bands of swift and effective jungle warriors to raid the plantations, free slaves, and kill Englishmen. In their capital, Nanny Town, the runaways were said to be led by an ancient and powerful witch, Granny Nanny, who protected her warriors with magical spells.”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“All over England, fields and pastures once used in common by local villagers were seized by feudal lords, enclosed with walls, fences, and hedgerows, and incorporated into large private farms and sheep ranches. This “enclosure movement” turned feudal lords into landed aristocrats and turned millions of self-sufficient farmers into landless paupers. Rural English life was increasingly perilous as a result. Without land, peasants could no longer raise livestock, meaning they could no longer produce their own milk, cheese, wool, or meat. Since they had to pay cash rents to their landlords to use their fields and live in their cottages, most were forced to hire themselves and their children out as laborers. For the typical peasant family, this represented a huge loss in real income;”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“Mortality rates among the crews of vessels employed in the African slave trade were comparable to those of the slaves themselves. It was not unusual for 40 percent of the crew to perish during a single voyage, most from tropical diseases against which they had no resistance. About half the sailors pressed into the Royal Navy died at sea.”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“Men whose ships were wrecked or who were pressed into the navy at sea rarely received any of the wages they were owed, spelling disaster for the families they left behind.”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“buccaneers”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“He kicked each of his shoes over the wall and into the crowd, adding, “that some friends of his had often said he should die in his shoes, but that he would make them liars.”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“nascent”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers

“several hundred English lived on Tortuga, the westernmost part of the sprawling British Leeward Islands”
― Colin Woodard, The Republic Of Pirates: A Captivating Historical Biography of the Caribbean's Infamous Buccaneers