HIS 3522 - Pirates and Their Atlantic World (3)

When Offered: Summer Session
This course aims to examine the popular images of pirates, to find out where those images come from and to compare them with the real world of the pirates. We will concentrate on those pirates who plied the waters of the Atlantic during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We will also discuss the Barbary Corsairs of North Africa and other pirates that roamed the South China Sea. Themes raised during the course will include the origins of piracy in the early modern world, the economy of the Atlantic world, seafaring during the early modern period, the language and culture of the sea, authority and violence among pirates, and the social and cultural dimensions of piracy.