On the Account: Piracy & the Americas, 1766-1834

In addition to being commercialised and romanticised, piracy’s history has also been distorted, with many works straying far from the facts recorded in the Age of Sail. In this book, author Joseph Gibbs goes back to many of the original materials about those who went on the account (a classic euphemism for piracy) to deliver an engaging, closely interpreted anthology of seven decades of primary sources. The text comprises original monographs, handbills, trial records, newspaper articles, and official reports that deal with piracy in and involving the Americas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Joseph Gibbs annotates and explains these records in order to clarify the era’s historical, legal, literary, and nautical references. Along the way readers will experience violent mutinies, vicious sea battles, anti-piracy raids on Louisiana islands and Latin American coasts, and the United States’ first sustained encounter with the Barbary Corsairs. They will also catch glimpses of maritime brigands as remarkable as any that walked the decks of piracy’s earlier golden age and encounter the naval officers and sailors who strove to bring them to rough justice. Enhanced with period maps and illustrations, the book provides an enlightening introduction to piracy’s original canon as it emerged in the era of the quill pen and hand-turned press.