Pirates of the Caribbean: Scalawags, Sailors, and Slaves

Catalog description

Avast ye matey! This course is designed to be an in-depth analysis of the legendary bandits, mischievous scalawags, and barbarous buccaneers that roved the high seas from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Students will be introduced to the anthropological and archaeological methods that have been utilized to study these legendary bandits from a perspective different from what’s portrayed on the big screen. Through analysis of archaeological and historical sources, the course explores the seas of the Caribbean, where pirates struck fear into the hearts of mariners, traders, merchants, planters, and colonial authorities for centuries. The simultaneous rise of piracy and capitalism in the region is not coincidental, and we explore the strong, and often contentious, relationship between the two, including how the transatlantic slave trade played a vital role in the rise of piracy. We’ll confront the legends and myths surrounding infamous pirates like Blackbeard, “Black Sam” Bellamy, Captain Morgan, and some lesser known bandits to separate fact from fiction. Despite the popularity of these larger than life figures, we spend far more time discussing the thousands of individuals who comprised the motley crew of Caribbean pirates and unpack how piracy was perceived by throughout the Atlantic world. Archaeological and historical scholarship will touch on multiple facets of the lives of pirates on the high seas from their ships, their everyday belongings, the goods they plundered, the hideaways they called home, the people they forged relationships with, the havoc they caused, and the legends they left behind.