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the Buccaneers created their own short-lived highly anarchic
society; Libertatia, in Madagascar; Ranter's Bay, also in
Madagascar; and Nassau, in the Bahamas, which was the
last classical pirate utopia.
Most historians have failed to note the significance ofthe
pirates' land enclavN, seeing them simply as resting-places
between cruises. The notion of a pirate Jociely is a contradiction
in terms in most theories of history, whether Marxist or
otherwise - but the Buccaneers of Hispaniola (modern
Santo Domingo) constituted just such a society. Hispaniola
was a sort of No Go Zone in the late 16th or early 17th century;
the Native population had declined, and no European
power held an effective claim. Shipwrecked sailors, deserters,
runaway slaves and serfs ("Maroons") and other
dropouts began to find themselves in Hispaniola, free of all
governance, and able to make a living of sorts as hunters.
Feral cattle and pigs, descended from the herds of failed and
vanished attempts at settlements, roamed the forest, along
with wild game. Boucan or smoke-dried meat (a technique
learned from the native Caribs) could be exchanged with
passing ships for other merchandise. Here originated the
"Brethren ofthe Coast", quite conscious oftheir freedom and
organized (minimally and egalitarianly) to preserve it. Later
communities were founded in Tortuga and New Providence.
The Buccaneers turned only gradually to piracy, and when
they did so they banded together under "Articles" or ships'
constitutions, some ofthem quoted by Exquemelin (the only
eye-witness chronicler of the Buccaneers in their "golden
age''). The Articles are almost the only authentic pirate documents
in existence. They generally called for election of all
officers except Ship's Quartermaster and other "artists" such
as sailmaker, cook, or musician. Captains were elected and
received as little as one-and-a-half or two times a crewman's
share. Corporal punishment was outlawed, and disagree­
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ments even between officers and men were resolved at a
drumhead court, or by the Code Duello. Sometimes a clause
would be inserted by some dour Welsh pirate (like "Black
Bart" Roberts) forbidding women and boys on board shipbut
usually not. Liquor was never forbidden. Pirate ships
were true republics, each ship (or fleet) an independent
floating democracy.
The early Buccaneers lived a fairly idyllic life in the
woods, a life marked by extremes ofpoverty and plenty, cruelty
and generosity, and punctuated by desperate ventures to
sea in leaky canoes and jury-rigged sloops. The Buccaneer
way of life had an obvious appeal: interracial harmony, class
solidarity, freedom from government, adventure, and possible
glory. Other endeavors sprang up. Belize was first settled
by Buccaneers. The town of Port Royal on Jamaica became
their stomping ground; its haunted ruins can still be seen
beneath the sea that drowned it whole in 1692. But even
before this quietus of biblical proportions the Buccaneer life
had already come to an end. The brilliant Henry Morgan,
bold and lucky, rose to leadership, organized the amazing
Buccaneer invasion of Panama in 1671-then took the
Pardon along with an English appointment as Governor and
High Judge, and returned to his old haunts as the executioner
of his old comrades. It was certainly the end of an era;
the surviving Buccaneers, cut adrift from permanent land
bases, became piratN.
But the "golden age" dream lingered on: the sylvan idyll
of Hispaniola became both a myth of origin, and a political
goal. From now on, whenever the pirates had a chance, they
would attempt the foundation of permanent or semi-permanent
land enclaves. The ideal conditions included proximity
to sea-lanes, friendly Natives (and Native women), seclusion
and remoteness from all writ and reality of European power,
a pleasant tropical climate, and perhaps a trading post or
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