The Fictionalization of Pirate Culture
(Follow the links to see each exhibit item.)

So, if our idea of pirate life is so warped, where did we get the ideas that we have? Much of our current view of the pirate came from two books written during the Golden Age of Piracy.

Alexandre Exquemelin’s The Buccaneers of America, published in 1678, recounting the lives of both privateers and pirates (and those who blurred the lines) in the Caribbean area. The book details the origins, codes of conduct, and ways of life of the pirates terrorizing the Caribbean colonies. According to the Library of Congress, “These bold plunderers come across as shrewd strategists, crack shots, fine navigators, wild debauchers, and greedy adventurers who frequently engaged in vicious acts of cruelty.” Then, in 1724, as the Golden Age of Piracy was diminishing, A General History of the Pyrates was published under the pseudonym Captain Charles Johnson. This is the origin of many aspects of our “image” of the pirate–some which were accurate descriptions of real-world pirates, others which were exaggerations or dramatizations. The skull-and-crossbones flag, for example, was depicted and identified as the “Jolly Roger.” The lives of many famous pirates of the day were recounted, including Captain Edward Teach (also known as Blackbeard).

It is likely that both of these books took some creative license in their writing. This warping was then compounded when fictional stories were later written featuring pirate characters. Robert Louis Stevenson and J.M. Barrie, for example, both took influence from A General History of the Pyrates in writing their still-famous novels. In 1883, Stevenson’s Treasure Island was published in full, creating some widely-believed pirate myths of its own, like a parrot on a pirate’s shoulder, a treasure map marked with an “X,” and a death sentence by the “black spot.” The one-legged pirate Long John Silver remains one of the best-known fictional pirates day–and pirates like Blackbeard are rarely distinguished as ‘more real’ than him. Roughly thirty years later, we see the creation of perhaps the best known fictional pirate, in the world of Neverland. J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan (and 1911 novelization Peter and Wendy) was the origin of the one-handed pirate (perhaps a play on Silver’s one leg?) Captain James Hook. His hook-for-a-hand also became a popular trope in pirate culture, though the historical accuracy of this is debatable. Because both the play and the novel were written for children, Hook is not necessarily a fearsome pirate so much as a silly one. He becomes terrified at the sound of a ticking crocodile, and is constantly bested by the cheery Peter Pan. Pan, too, fancies himself a fearsome pirate, but we are led to see him as a pirate who fights for good and to whom we can be sympathetic.

These two novels largely shaped how we view pirates today. Already, in the late 19th/early 20th century, we begin to view pirates as characters who might not be all bad. Readers liked their rebellious, swashbuckling lifestyle–to the point where they were willing to sympathize with them despite their villainy.