ONLINE: Most people today know of pirates from movies, novels, and plays, which tend to portray them as swashbuckling adventurers. Although pirates have been romanticized over the years, they were in fact real - dangerous men (and a few women) who sailed the seas in search of plunder. They were active from the late sixteenth to the eighteenth century, preying on the lucrative trade of Europe’s colonizing powers, and they were a serious problem in the colonial Caribbean. Opinions differ as to whether they were radicals who rebelled against the rising power of the state and the emergence of capitalism, or just greedy maritime bandits, who frequently abused enslaved Africans. In this online course, we will learn who they were, what they did, how they lived, how they related to the current political and economic systems, how authorities responded, and why and when piracy declined. Lastly, we will compare the actual history of Caribbean pirates with their representation in popular culture. | Lecture + Q&A.
Max enrollment: 200.
Class sessions are recorded.
