HIS 4345: Piracy & the Atlantic World, 1400-1850

Prior to the eighteenth century, the words 'pirate' and 'privateer' had no comprehensive English legal meanings. Scholars today who attempt to determine who in history was a 'pirate' run afoul of this language problem; this article aims to clarify it by tracing the etymology of 'privateer' in late seventeenth-century English Jamaica, where the word saw a great deal of use.

This paper examines the early seventeenth century, drawing together traditional histories of piracy with literary and theoretical studies.

This article argues that during the years 1716-1726 diverse groups of maritime predators operated opportunistically across the spectrum from state-sanctioned privateering to outright piracy. All of these freebooters relied on access to markets if they were to survive in an increasingly hostile political environment.

This article utilizes a scientific definition of “work” to shift enslaved laborers and the environments within which they toiled to the heart of the historical conversation.

This project examines how the definitions of "crime," "criminals," "licit," and "illicit behavior" were used in the 18th-century Atlantic World.

This article explores the role played by commercial, oceanic fisheries in European expansion into the Atlantic basin across the 15th -16th centuries.