Written by Tiffany Miron, July of 2024
The Significance of Villains of All Nations
Marcus Rediker’s book Villains of All Nations provides a well-developed argument and analysis of pirate society, adding depth that the field of study had been lacking prior. Despite this book being published twenty years ago, Rediker’s arguments about pirate society are highly referenced by other scholars and are well respected within the field. He not only heavily references A General History of the Pyrates, one of the main primary sources within the study of piracy, but also analyzes the work of other historians. Rediker’s argument regarding the egalitarian aspects of pirate society opened up new pathways for other scholars to study and was a turning point within the field. Thus, this work has a lot of respect amongst scholars, but given the amount of time that has past, also has topics that need development by current historians.
What did Rediker Argue, and What did it Lack?
In Villains of All Nations, Rediker analyzes multiple aspects and figures from pirate society to argue that pirates were “villains of all nations,” not only because they fought governments through warfare, but also because they created a society that went against many typical social norms for the time period. Rediker uses examples such as how pirate ships operated and the life stories of Anne Bonny and Mary Read to argue that pirate society operated in a much more egalitarian manner than one might expect. Although Rediker’s argument opened up many other paths of analysis, he was perhaps too general in stating that the society was egalitarian overall. While there are many, and very well supported, arguments that affirm the egalitarian nature of pirate society in the political and economic spheres, his points around race and gender feel much less supported and lack the depth the other aspects have.
While Rediker mentions women pirates occasionally throughout the other chapters, his biggest argument points are within a chapter focused on the topic titled “The Women Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read.” One of his main focuses within this chapter is the nature of Anne Bonny and Mary Read wearing both men and women’s attire while at sea when it made sense for the situation. This point within the historiography is of note, seeing as scholars have and still heavily range in thought about the topic. Although this point supports Rediker’s argument about pirate society pushing typical social ideals and therefore being egalitarian, it is important to note that this was not a norm for the majority of pirate society. Rediker does acknowledge that many ships were very opposed to having women on board as it was thought to be bad luck or a breach to the solidarity of men sailing, but he does not relate this point to the ship that Anne Bonny and Mary Read worked upon. Overall, Rediker’s remarks surrounding the gender and racial aspects of the pirates “egalitarian” society feel much more surface level than the other arguments made in the book.
What Does This Mean for My Research?
While reading Villains of All Nations, I came to the realization that perhaps a pirate crew accepting Anne Bonny and Mary Read as crewmembers should not be taken as a representation of pirate society being egalitarian, but rather seen as an anomaly within pirate society. If the lives of these two women affirmed that success could be easily found in piracy as the society construction allowed it, many more women pirates likely would have existed and among other crews, but this is not the case. The ship with Bonny and Read aboard was one of a kind, and we lack examples of women peacefully working aboard any other pirate ship. On the contrary, there are examples of pirates blatantly stating that having a woman aboard was bad luck, and others that treated women very poorly. Within A General History of the Pyrates from 1724 there are examples of both, such as Captain Bartholomew Roberts describing that women were akin to a curse, and Captain Blackbeard having fourteen young wives and treating them as prostitutes for his crew. Given that these examples are clear within a primary source, I believe they stand as solid examples of why pirate society was not egalitarian in regard to women. While I am far from completion, analyzing Rediker’s book was a great starting point for further constructing my hypothesis and drawing connections between other works.
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