Republic of Pirates

The Bahamas, 1706–1718. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Flying Gang was an 18th-century group of pirates who established themselves in Nassau, New Providence, the Bahamas after the War of the Spanish Succession and the sinking of the Spanish 1715 Treasure Fleet. It was not a republic in a formal sense, but it was governed by an informal pirate code. The Governor of Bermuda stated that there were over 1,000 pirates in Nassau at that time and that they outnumbered the mere hundred inhabitants in the town. Woodes Rogers reached Nassau in 1718 and restored British control.

Seat of power: Nassau

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• According to the code, the pirates ran their ships democratically, sharing plunder equally and selecting and deposing their captains by popular vote.
• Africans could be equal members of the crew, and several people of mixed European and African descent became pirate captains.
• A few female pirates like Anne Bonny and Mary Read were also present.

Picture

Woodes Rogers served as the governor of the Bahamas from 1718 to 1721 and again from 1728 to 1732.

Image: William Hogarth, Public domain, file

Sources

• Flying Gang (Wikipedia)
• Republic of Pirates (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.