The Republic of Pirates

SEARSPORT -- Award-winning journalist and author Colin Woodard will tell the REAL story of the pirates of the Caribbean and sign copies of his newest book, The Republic of Pirates, in a night of pirates and intrigue next Friday, June 22nd, at 7 pm in Searsport.  The event, co-sponsored by Left Bank Books and the Penobscot Marine Museum, will be held in the Museum's newly-renovated Main Street Gallery at 40 East Main Street just next door to the Museum Store and opposite Left Bank Books.  The public is welcome (eye patches optional!) and pirate refreshments will be served.

The Republic of Pirates, published this May (Harcourt, $27.00), has gotten rave reviews as "a thrilling account of a virtually unexplored chapter in the Golden Age of Piracy" and already has been named a Summer Reading Choice by the New York Times Book Review.  Drawing on extensive research in archives in Britain and the Americas, its focus is on a single clique of pirates who operated for a brief period in the early 18th century, who all knew one another, shared a base in a "pirate republic" in the Bahamas, and in their heyday threatened the underpinnings of three empires.  The story is told through the lives of four of its leading figures: the three great pirate captains, Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane, and the fourth man, privateer-turned-fleet owner Woodes Rogers, who eventually brought them down.

Much more than a thieving "band of brothers," these pirate captains and many of their men had come to piracy as a revolt against conditions in the Navy and merchant fleet and the crushing poverty of the cities and plantations of the Old and New Worlds.  Inspired by notions of self-government, they established a crude but distinctive form of democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which indentured servants were released, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.  Indeed, Woodard says, just as they shook the foundations of Imperial Spain and Britain, so they also fanned the democratic sentiments that would later drive the American Revolution.

From 1715 to 1725, their pirate "republic" was enormously successful, cutting off trade routes, sacking slave ships, and severing Britain, France and Spain from their New World empires.  England’s Royal Navy went from being unable to catch the pirates to being afraid to encounter them at all.  Eventually, of course, the imperial powers would prevail.  Woodes Rogers, a Scottish fleet owner and former privateer himself, volunteered to retake the pirates' lair and destroy anyone who resisted.  And in battle scenes as vivid as anything in the movies, the short but glorious life of the Republic of Pirates came to end.
 
A native of Maine, Colin Woodard is the author of two previous books: The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier (Viking, 2004, $16.00), a best-selling history of Midcoast Maine and the efforts of its settlers to preserve their common resource, the lobster, rather than exploit it; and Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas (Basics Books, 2000, $15.00). He is also a foreign correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and the Chronicle of Higher Education and has reported from more than 40 foreign countries and six continents.  Woodard was honored with the 2004 Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Public Advocacy, given by the Tides Foundation for his global reporting on environmental issues, and has been the recipient of fellowships from the Pew Foundation, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Institute for International Education, and United States Antarctic Program, among many others.  A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, he lives with his wife, Sarah, and their two dogs in Portland.

For more information on Friday’s event, or to reserve a signed copy of The Republic of Pirates, please call Left Bank Books at 548-6400 or the Penobscot Marine Museum at 548-2529, ext. 208

For more information on Colin Woodard and his book(s) please visit www.colinwoodard.com.

The Penobscot Marine Museum was founded in 1936 and is Maine’s oldest maritime museum. Its Searsport grounds comprise 13 historic buildings, including ship captains’ residences, an early town hall, and a commercial structure. Eight of the buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, and together they represent Searsport when it was a bustling port during the Age of Sail. Inside the historic structures - artifacts, exhibits, and interpreters tell the stories of Maine’s seafaring past.

The Penobscot Marine Museum is located at U.S. Highway 1 and Church Street in Searsport, between Bucksport and Belfast. The museum is open daily May 26 through October 21, Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, 12:00 noon - 5:00 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults and $3 for children ages 7-15. Admission for families (parents + children in same household) is $18.00. Museum members and children under 7 are free. Special programs and events are featured several times a week.

For more information on the museum’s work and mission see our website: www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org.