Nix’s Mate: The Gibbeting Site of Pirate William Fly
You are now on the Long Wharf Pier on the Boston Harbor Walk. If you had a compass, you could look toward the Harbor in the direction at approximately 110°ESE. Depending on the weather on the day of your visit, you might be able to make out a speck far out in the harbor, just east of Long Island that marks the island of Nix’s Mate where Pirate William Fly was gibbeted in 1726. Nix’s Mates houses some of the most prominent tales of classic pirates in the Boston area from the early eighteenth century. One pirate in particular, William Fly, literally became the center piece of the island in 1726. Here, he was gibbeted, or hung in chains. One can think of gibbeting similar to how farmers use a scarecrow to try to prevent birds from eating their livestock, only in the pirating world, it warned sailors against considering piracy. While there are several explanations of the reason for Fly’s hanging, the most traditional tale proposes that he supposedly murdered his captain in the middle of the night.William Fly’s prominence in the realm of piracy should be taken with a grain of salt. For starters, Fly was notoriously unpredictable in his pirate career. The eighteenth minister Cotton Mather had special interests in the moral aspects of piracy and attempted to convince condemned pirates of the error of their ways states. He stated that Fly’s “unwillingness to sin by lying [is] ironic, since it masked even greater sins, pride and hatred.”[1] Often times, Fly threw tantrums that were “‘the most desperate ragings […] cursing the very heavens & in effect the God that judged him.’”[2] Fly’s raionale for piracy must always be put into perspective with regards to his poor temperament.It is worth noting that Fly chose piracy, as opposed to other sailors of his time who were forced into it. Fly turned to piracy rather than continue with maritime sailing because he was drawn to “its anarchic freedoms over the rigors of maritime hierarchy. He had already sailed on one pirate ship and, rather than endure mistreatment, decided again to take his chances as a pirate, discarding lawful submission in favor of ruthless action.”[3] Legend has it that “Fly, having united with him several of the crew, cast the captain and mate into the sea, took the Snow, changed its name to the [Fame’s Revenge], and ‘set out pirating.’”[4] As a consequence, he was hanged and gibbeted on Nix’s Mate, marking it as a “moment of terror.”[5] Non-pirate state officials intended this particular gibbeting “to instill fear in sailors who might wish to become pirates.”[6] During the Golden Age of Piracy, state officials did everything in their power to prevent sailors from abandoning their maritime duties and from joining pirate crews.In addition to the legends of William Fly, several different pirate tales allude to the origin of affixing the name of Nix’s Mate to the island. Frequently, “the legend which is often told down the Harbor concerns the mate of a Captain Nix. The mate was accused of murdering his captain and was taken to the island to be hanged for the crime. Before he was swung off into eternity, he is alleged to have declared that as proof of his innocence the island would some day disappear.”[7] Since the island has since eroded with the only remaining vegetation subaquatic, some people may interpret this as evidence of the legend. Others speculate that the island was “owned by Nix, [and thus became] known as Nix’s Mate”[8].Regardless of how Nix’s Mate came to be, it remains an important site in pirate history. Its location in Boston Harbor made it the perfect site to display the gibbeted corpse of William Fly to instill fear in passing sailors, and to warn them against falling to piracy. Ultimately, the history of Fly’s gibbeting shows us the seriousness of classic piracy. It’s not all the “yo ho ho’s” and peg legs we often account with pirates.— Kat Jones_____________________________________[1] Daniel E. Williams, “Puritans and Pirates: A Confrontation between Cotton Mather and William Fly in 1726.” Early American Literature 22, no. 3 (1987): 242. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.25056676&site=eds-live&scope=site.[2] Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates In The Golden Age. (London: Verso 2012), 4[3] Daniel E. Williams, “Puritans and Pirates: A Confrontation between Cotton Mather and William Fly in 1726.” Early American Literature 22, no. 3 (1987): 233, 247. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.25056676&site=eds-live&scope=site.[4] Samuel G. Drake, The History and Antiquities of Boston: the Capital of Massachusetts and Metropolis of New England, from Its Settlement in 1630, to the Year 1770; Also an Introductory History of the Discovery and Settlement of New England; with Notes, Critical and Illustrative. (Boston: Published by the author, 1857), 573. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=tIUlAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA573. (accessed November 03, 2019).[5] Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates In The Golden Age. (London: Verso 2012), 5Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates In The Golden Age. (London: Verso 2012), 5[7] Edward Rowe Snow and Jeremy Dentremont, The Islands of Boston Harbor (Beverly, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2002), 80.[8] Edward Rowe Snow and Jeremy Dentremont, The Islands of Boston Harbor )Beverly, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2002).Pictured: Nix's Mate. William Fly, who was gibbeted at Nix's Mate, as represented for Allen & Ginter cigarettes c.1888.**To go to Rachel Wall (Site 2), head west on Long Wharf. Walk 40ft and arrive at Site 2.**
Rachel Wall
You are now standing on Long Wharf, the location that holds special meaning to a one Rachel Wall. The account of Rachel Wall, an American female pirate and the last woman to be hanged in Massachusetts, is just one of many stories of small-scale piracy that transpired during the late 18th century. Rachel was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1760. She described her mother and father as “honest and reputable” people who gave her a “good education, and instructed [her] in the fundamental principles of the Christian Religion.”[1] Nonetheless, Rachel left her parents at a young age, returning again, she “was receiving by them, but could not be contented; therefore tarried with them but two years, before [she] left them again.”[2]This time Rachel ran away to Philadelphia with a sailor named George Wall, whom she thereafter married. The pair traveled to New York and a few months later to Boston. While in Boston, George left Rachel to set sail on a fishing schooner, leaving Rachel working as a servant, where she lived “very contented.”[3] Two months later, George returned and persuaded Rachel to leave her job and become a pirate. George and his mates, who had been privateers during the Revolutionary War, could not resist the lure of the ocean and the prospects of easy money. Rachel accepted his offer, and they set sail. George and his crew devised a clever scheme to tempt approaching vessels onto their ship, kill them, and steal their riches. George moored his vessel in the harbor at the Isles of Shoals whenever it appeared that a large storm was about to hit the coast. When the storm hit, Wall ordered his crew to “seize the sails, pull them loose, and twist them for a storm-battered look.”[4] Rachel, dressed in tattered clothing, would call to passing vessels to help her, pretending to be a pitiful survivor. When other seafaring men would board Walls’s ship to rescue Rachel, George and his crew members would attack and kill them, transferring their enemies’ booty to their own vessel. In this way, Rachel and the band of pirates were able to successfully prey on passing vessels producing a steady income.Sometime later, a hurricane hit the Eastern coast. Captain Wall was anchored in his normal spot, waiting for the storm to pass. The sun came out for a little bit, tricking Wall into thinking the hurricane had passed, so he ordered his crew to set sail. As they reached the open sea, the storm came back in full force. Huge waves caused the mainmast to “snap in two.”[5] The crewmen were swept overboard, and one final wave engulfed George throwing him into the abyss of the ocean. The next day, a ship from New York rescued the survivors. That event marked the end of Rachel’s participation in piracy.The ship returned Rachel back to Boston, where she resumed her job as a servant. Despite the fact that Rachel had ended her career as a pirate, she could not stop thieving. Rachel tried to behave herself but “within a relatively short time her good intentions to behave were forgotten.”[6] Many people stored their valuable items aboard the ships docked in Boston Harbor, and Rachel had first-hand knowledge of these hiding places from her time as a pirate. During the spring of 1787, Rachel went aboard a ship that was docked at Long Wharf, which, built in the 18th century, was, during that time, one of the busiest piers in the country. (Living up to its name, the Long Wharf used to extend from State Street almost half a mile into the Boston Harbor.) As Rachel entered this particular boat, she found that everyone was asleep, therefore, “[she] hunted about for plunder, and discovered… a black silk handkerchief containing upwards of thirty pounds, in gold, crowns, and small change.”[7]According to Rachel herself, she was on her way home one evening from work, “without design to injure any person” when she was “ surprised when the crime was laid to [her] charge.”[8] Rachel was accused of stealing a bonnet from a 17-year old Margaret Bender who was walking along the road. Consequently, Rachel was arrested for highway robbery and later tried. Rachel insisted she was innocent, “as to the crime of Robbery… I am entirely innocent to the truth of this declaration I appeal to that God before whom I must shortly appear.”[9] Despite her protestations, Rachel was found guilty. Wall was hanged at the Great Elm on Boston Common in front of a large crowd of thousands on October 7, 1789 where, “everyone present was ready for the morning’s gruesome excitement.”[10] Rachel was the last of the three individuals hanged that day and in her final act of bravery, “when the time came she jumped out off the edge to her death without help.”[11] In just over 200 years, 127 women were hanged in New England; Rachel would be the last woman hanged in Massachusetts.[12]— Jessica Sibert____________________________________[1] “Life, Last Words and Dying CONFESSION, OF RACHEL WALL, Who, with William Smith and William Dunogan, were executed at BOSTON, on Thursday, October 8, 1789, for HIGH-WAY ROBBERY.”.[2] Ibid.[3] Ibid.[4] “Life, Last Words and Dying CONFESSION, OF RACHEL WALL, Who, with William Smith and William Dunogan, were executed at BOSTON, on Thursday, October 8, 1789, for HIGH-WAY ROBBERY.”.[5] Ibid.[6] Edward Rowe Snow. Piracy, Mutiny, and Murder. (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1959) 76.[7] “Life, Last Words and Dying CONFESSION, OF RACHEL WALL.”[8] Ibid.[9] Ibid.[10] Snow. Piracy, Mutiny, and Murder, 77.[11] Ibid.[12] “Rachel Wall, Pirate.” Historical Walking Tours | Boston, Massachusetts. https://www.walkbostonhistory.com/rachel-wall--pirate.html Pictured: The Life, Last Words and Dying Confession of Rachel Wall (Boston, 1789). Detail, from the Life, Last Words and Dying Confession of Rachel Wall (Boston, 1789).**To go to Charles Ellms's Print House (Site 3), continue walking on Long Wharf and cross onto State Street. At the corner of John F. Fitzgerald Surface Road and State Street, take a right. Continue down John F. Fitzgerald Road and take a left onto South Market Street. Continue walking on South Market Street and arrive at Site 3.**
Charles Ellms, Pirate Story-teller
Although Charles Ellms’s print house no longer stands today, in the first half of the nineteenth century, 91 Cornhill Street would have found his presses hard at work. Born on June 21, in 1805, on the south shores of Massachusetts Bay, Charles Ellms had one older sibling. His father died in 1813, when he, holding a young Charles, was struck by lightning.[1] Shortly thereafter, Ellms moved to Boston for schooling and determined to follow his inclination for literature rather than join the merchant marines.Before he composed books, however, Ellms worked as a Boston Stationer (someone who sold books and paper), likely with a printer named Samuel N. Dickinson.[2] Eventually Ellms started writing comic almanacs, which were used by farmers to figure out moon cycles and how long days would be. In addition to the astrological information, Ellms’s almanac offered stories, illustrations, and songs, including, in The American Comic Almanack for 1831, the sea song “Blow high, blow low.”[3] This mix of different items helped keep the reader engaged and looked forward to Ellms later efforts with two best-selling compilations of varied stories about the sea: the Pirates Own Book (1837) and Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea (1841).The Pirates Own Book, Or Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers featured the piratical exploits of North American pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Blackbeard as well as Danish, Spanish, and English pirates. Each chapter has its own little story within it and the book was peppered with engravings. “The Adventures of Captain Robert Kidd,” for example, talked about how Captain Kidd was ruthless: “His piracies so alarmed our merchants that some motions were made in parliament, to inquire into the commission that was given him, and the persons who fitted him out.”[4] (Kidd’s given name was William but changed to Robert through popular American ballads about Kidd.) Kidd took over ships, ransomed villages, and murdered people. He was tried for the murder of crewman and was eventually hanged in chains for all to see. Despite this humiliating end, Kidd maintained his innocence according to Ellms: Kidd “had been sworn against by perjured and wicked people. And when [his] sentence was pronounced, he said, ‘My Lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part, I am the most innocent person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons.”[5] Although he did not include any accounts of slavers in his famous book, Ellms was an abolitionist and, as he said in the introduction to The Pirates Own Book, believed the slave trade to be piracy.[6]Before he published any book, Ellms did intensive research, incorporating ideas from multiple sources into his write-ups to assure that the book he was publishing was accurate.[7] Along with his lucky timing, Ellms’s general accuracy helped make his books popular, provided an alternative take on adventures out in seas with shipwrecks and treasure which peaked people’s interest.By the early 1840s Ellms was struggling with writing; he published three more books and then left Boston. Little is known about his subsequent life, though it is thought he died on March 13, 1866.[8] What is certain is that his memory lives on in the pirate stories that brought him fame and illustrate Boston’s long-standing fascination with pirates.— Kaili Shorey___________________________________[1] Michael Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs: Charles Ellms Packages Books in Nineteenth-Century America,” Printing History (Jan 2011): 3.[2] Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs,” 8.[3] Charles Ellms, American Comic Almanack for 1831 (Boston: Charles Ellms), 16.[4] Charles Ellms, The Pirates Own Book. (Portland, ME: Francis Blake,1859), 348.[5] Ellms, The Pirates Own Book, 375.[6] Sonja Schillings, Enemies of All Humankind: Fictions of Legitimate Violence. (Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 2017), 27.[7] Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs,” 9.[8] Winship, “Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Comic Almanacs,” 15.Pictured: Title page of The Pirates Own Book (first edition, Charles Ellms: Boston, 1837; the pictured edition is from Maine and 1856, which shows the collection's popularity). Detail from The Pirates Own Book (first edition Charles Ellms: Boston, 1837). Title page of Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea (compiled by Charles Ellms, 1839). Detail from Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea (compiled by Charles Ellms, 1839).**To go to Boston’s News Letter (Site 4), head south on South Market Street towards Congress Street. Take a left onto Congress Street. At the intersection of Congress and State Street, take a right onto State. Turn left onto Washington Street. At the corner of Washington St. and School St. the destination will be on your right.**
A History of The Boston Newsletter
The Boston Newsletter, established in 1704, was the first newspaper in America to continuously put out a weekly issue.[1] The first issue printed by the postmaster John Campbell was nothing special, just a single sheet with text on both sides, but with time the paper became well established.[2] The Boston Newsletter ran continuously for about 72 years from 1704 to 1776 and was the only newspaper to continue publishing issues during the opening phase of the Revolution.[3] The newsletter regularly reported on religious news and “the balance of power between Catholic and Protestant states.”[4] The first few issues of the newsletter primarily contained news from England and advocated “pro-British” sympathies, unsurprising since America was still governed by England at the time.[5] As time went on, The Boston Newsletter began reporting on more local current events, especially those pertaining to piracy and pirate activity. While there is no specific structure for The Boston Newsletter still standing today, the general area of its location, Washington Street, is historically rich with many of the Freedom Trail locations situated relatively close to one another, including The Old Corner Bookstore and the King’s Chapel and Burying Ground.The long history of printing in America dates to 1638 when the first printing press arrived to Massachusetts from England.[6] Before there was printing and newspapers, face to face communication and written letters were the most efficient means of communication.[7] All of the early newspapers were different in their own way. Some reported more on current events while others focused on literary works, however, they all followed the standard format of newspapers being printed in England.[8] For example, these newspapers were typically two pages, the first news section was foreign news, followed by a section detailing news from the American colonies.[9] The first publisher of The Boston Newsletter was postmaster John Campbell. Originally from Scotland, Campbell moved to America where he put down his roots and opened a bookshop in Boston.[10] Aside from his job at The Boston Newsletter, John Campbell also served as a justice of the peace for Suffolk county.[11] Upon the establishment of the newsletter, Campbell also worked as the postmaster alongside Bartholomew Green until 1718. After Campbell retired after sixteen years, Green took over as postmaster and head publisher for the newsletter. Bartholomew Green had been working as a printer at The Boston Newsletter since its birth, and went operatedthe newsletter until his death in 1732.[12] Similar to other family operated newspapers in early America, Bartholomew Green passed down the overseeing of the newsletter to his son-in-law John Draper.[13]The Boston Newsletter reported on many maritime events and activities, including many stories about piracy. These piratical stories were regularly covered because pirates interrupted trade with England and the other colonies. One can assume that these stories were prioritized in the media because not only were they entertaining, but because the Government wanted to create public shame for those who turned pirate. The newspaper detailed the Government's public hangings of captured pirates. The Newsletter covered stories on the movement of pirates as they terrorized merchant and naval ships in the Atlantic ocean. The information primarily came from firsthand accounts and interactions from sea captains and sailors who described their experiences to John Campbell once they came into port in Boston.[14] Many of these accounts involved the infamous Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, one of the most brutal pirates known to sail the Atlantic ocean. One issue in particular recounted hand-to-hand combat between Blackbeard and another seaman which ultimately ended in Blackbeard’s bloody decapitation. According to the issue, after the fight was over “Teach’s body was thrown overboard, and his Head put on the Ballpit.”[15] The newspaper's reporting on pirate activity during the 18th century undoubtedly demonstrated bias against pirates who were depicted as ruthless criminals who acted senselessly.The Boston Newsletter and other newspapers in the early American colonies shaped the way Americans consumed media and their understanding of pirates. Coverage of pirates sold newspapers and helped to create a local print culture which changed the course of American history.— Mae Blackwell___________________________________[1] “Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded 1791.” Massachusetts Historical Society: www.masshist.org/database/186.[2] “Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded 1791.” Massachusetts Historical Society: www.masshist.org/database/186.[3] “Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded 1791.” Massachusetts Historical Society: www.masshist.org/database/186.[4] Thomas S. Kidd, “‘Let Hell and Rome Do Their Worst’: World News, Anti-Catholicism, and International Protestantism in Early-Eighteenth-Century Boston” The New England Quarterly, June 1, 2003. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1559905?seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents.[5] “Published by Authority: The Boston News-Letter, 1704-1776.” Readex, April 17, 2015. https://www.readex.com/blog/published-authority-boston-news-letter-1704-1776.[6] “The Boston News-Letter.” Omeka RSS. Accessed October 29, 2019. http://americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-colonial-america/item/116.[7] McIntyre, Sheila.”I Heare it so Variously Reported.” December 1998. Accessed October 14th, 2019.https://www.jstor.org/stable/366604?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents [8] “The Boston News-Letter.” Omeka RSS. Accessed October 29, 2019. http://americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-colonial-america/item/116. [9] “The Boston News-Letter.” Omeka RSS. Accessed October 29, 2019. http://americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/news-in-colonial-america/item/116.[10] “Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded 1791.” Massachusetts Historical Society: www.masshist.org/database/186.[11] “Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded 1791.” Massachusetts Historical Society: www.masshist.org/database/186.[12] “Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded 1791.” Massachusetts Historical Society: www.masshist.org/database/186.[13] “Massachusetts Historical Society. Founded 1791.” Massachusetts Historical Society: www.masshist.org/database/186.[14] “Published by Authority: The Boston News-Letter, 1704-1776.” Readex, April 17, 2015. https://www.readex.com/blog/published-authority-boston-news-letter-1704-1776.[15] “Published by Authority: The Boston News-Letter, 1704-1776.” Readex, April 17, 2015. https://www.readex.com/blog/published-authority-boston-news-letter-1704-1776.Pictured: The first issue of the Boston News-letter. An eighteenth-century print shop from Diderot's Encyclopédie (Paris, 1751-2).**To go to First Church Boston (Site 5), head northeast on Washington Street towards State Street. The destination will be on the left.**
All Time Low(e): Edward Lowe’s Descent into Piracy
As he took control of a small vessel in the Bay of Honduras in 1722, Captain Edward Lowe “hoisted a black flag, and declared war on the world.”[1] This proclamation at the very beginning of his piratical career effectively made him nationless. Despite his declaration, Lowe possessed significant ties to New England, and most notably, Boston.Before building a life in Boston, Lowe spent his childhood in Westminster, England where he was born in 1690.[2] As he grew older, Lowe spent between three and four years sailing to various ports with his brother, ultimately landing in Boston. He found work as a ship-rigger, and met Eliza Marble, whom he married at the First Church in Boston in August of 1714 by Reverend Benjamin Wadsworth. Together, they had a son and daughter, both of whom were baptized at the Second Church in Boston. The family joined the congregation at the Second Church in Boston, but tragedy soon struck as Lowe’s son died in infancy. Eliza also died shortly afterwards.[3] Lowe, overcome with grief, left his job and young daughter and sailed to the Bay of Honduras on a cargo vessel.[4]Once there, Lowe was given command of the boat charged with delivering logwood to the cargo vessel. After a brief conflict with the captain of the cargo vessel, Lowe and several members of the crew then stole the smaller boat and fled.[5] Although this act of violence appeared spontaneous, it was likely planned in advance by Lowe and other members of the crew as they quickly began sailing under a black flag. The following day, the crew captured a small vessel and began cruising the Caribbean.[6]Afterwards, Lowe briefly joined forces with fellow pirate Captain George Lowther. Together, they pillaged ships throughout the Atlantic, capturing cargo and men, and then either burning the ships or adding them to their fleet.[7] Despite their success, Lowther found Lowe to be an unruly officer. He decided to give Lowe command of a brigantine with forty men, and the two pirates went their separate ways.[8] From there, Lowe continued to attack and to rob captured vessels from New England to the Caribbean.[9]Lowe possessed a reputation for being an especially cruel pirate. He was described by those as the time as a “cowardly villain” and by historians as ““notorious, despicable, and arguably mentally deranged.”[10] Whereas other pirates used the threat of violence, rather than violence itself as a method of manipulating their targets into complying with their demands, Lowe appeared to thrive on the violence itself.[11] He was known for murdering his prisoners for entertainment or encouraging his crew to do so themselves.[12] He was especially brutal towards ships from New England due to the region’s attempts to punish piracy through executions.[13] Even his crew fell subject to his wrath.[14] Lowe’s ferocious and brutal nature contributed to his reputation as one of the more infamous pirates of the time, just as much as his success in capturing bounty and other ships.[15]Interestingly, Lowe’s exact fate remains unknown.[16] Lowe was possibly last seen in January, 1724, off of the coast of Guinea, but that his fate afterwards was unknown.[17] Charles Ellms suggested that Lowe’s crew revolted against him and abandoned him without provisions in a small boat. He was found by a French vessel, brought to Martinique, tried, and hanged.[18] Both ideas are plausible, but the exact date and cause of Lowe’s death remains a mystery.Despite essentially declaring himself nationless at the beginning of his piratical career, Edward Lowe’s earlier ties to Boston and the First Church in Boston remain significant. Boston was the location in which Lowe met his wife, and the First Church of Boston was the location where they were married. Lowe’s family were members of the congregation of the Second Church in Boston, demonstrating his ties to the city. Unfortunately, these very ties pushed Lowe towards piracy, as the sudden death of his wife and son sparked the events which led to his piratical career.— Elizabeth Collotta___________________________________[1] Charles Ellms, The Pirates Own Book; or, Authentic Narratives of the Lives, Exploits, and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers (Portland: Francis Blake, 1855), 229.[2] Anonymous, The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and Their Crews from Captain John Avery, Who First Settled at Madagascar, to Captain John Gow, and James Williams, His Lieutenant, &c. Who Were Hanged at Execution Dock, June 11, 1735, for Piracy and Murder: and Afterwards Hanged in Chains between Blackwall and Deptford: And in This Edition Continued down to the Year 1735. Giving a More Full and True Account than Any Yet Published of All Their Murders, Piracles, Maroonings, Places of Refuge, and Way of Living. To Which Is Prefixed An Abstract of the Laws against Piracy (Glasgow: Robert Duncan, 1788); Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, 141.[3] Eric Jay Dolan Blue Flags, Black Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates. (New York , NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2018), 338.[4] Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, 141-142.[5] Ellms, The Pirates’ Own Book, 228.[6] Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, 143.[7] Ibid, 144.[8] Ibid, 143-146.[9] Ellms, The Pirates’ Own Book, 229-235.[10] The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and Their Crews, 86; Dolan, Blue Flags, Black Waters, 338. [11] Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age (London: Verso, 2012).[12] Ellms, The Pirates’ Own Book, 234.[13] Dow and Edmonds. The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, 144.; Daniel E. Williams, “Puritans and Pirates: A Confrontation between Cotton Mather and William Fly in 1726” Early American Literature 22, no. 3 (1987): 233–51.[14] Dow and Edmonds. The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, 144.[15] Dolan, Blue Flags, Black Waters, 348.[16] Dow and Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, 143.[17] The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and Their Crews, 81.[18] Ellms, The Pirates' Own Book, 235.Pictured: Low Presenting a Pistol and a Bowl of Punch from The Pirates Own Book, Boston, 1837. Image of The Cruelties Practiced by Captain Low from The Pirates Own Book (Charles Ellms: Boston, 1837).**To go to the Old State House (Site 6), head north on Washington Street towards State Street. Turn right onto State St. and the destination will be on the right.**
John Quelch: the Pirate Captain Killed by His Fortune
Boston’s Old State House was built in 1713 to be where the Massachusetts General Court met, and as Boston’s oldest surviving public building, it has a lot of history behind it. It is most famous for being the site of the Boston Massacre, an event that eventually led to the American Revolution, yet few people know that it has a lot of rich piratical history behind it as well. For example, it is the place where seven pirates—the surviving crew of the famous and most wealthy pirate captain, Black Sam Bellamy—were tried and condemned. However, Boston had been holding the trials of pirates almost a decade before the Old State House was built. The first of these was for John Quelch, who was tried in a townhouse and hanged by the Boston Court of Admiralty in 1704. But John Quelch and some of his crew weren’t only the first pirates tried in Boston, they were also the first pirates tried outside of London.Until July 1703, John Quelch was just the lieutenant-commander of a ship under Britain’s rule called the Charles. The Captain of the eighty-ton brigantine, Daniel Plowman, anchored in Marblehead and was awaiting orders from the Queen when he fell ill. When news of his sickness reached the owners of the ship, they became concerned that Plowman wouldn’t be able to perform his duties as captain and instructed Captain Plowman to stay anchored in Marblehead. To avoid the threat of a new captain being assigned, however Plowman and his crew set sail anyway. It was at this point that, for unknown reasons, his crew committed mutiny against him and locked him in his quarters. The mutiny was led by none other than the lieutenant-commander of the ship, John Quelch, whom the crew elected as their new captain. Not long after, former Captain Plowman was thrown overboard, either dead or alive. (He may have died of his illness, as he was locked in his quarters without proper care or resources, or he may have been thrown overboard alive to complete the mutiny.)Although John Quelch is a famous pirate, his time of piracy was short-lived. Although there had been a treaty alliance signed between Great Britain and Portugal on May 16, 1703, Quelch and his crew captured nine vessels under Portugal’s rule off the coast of Brazil, and from them looted goods, guns, money, and at least two enslaved blacks.[1] It’s possible, and likely, that Quelch did know about the treaty but attacked the ships anyways as an act of piracy and defiance. Though capturing nine vessels in such a short time is impressive, they were not his most valuable prize. Sometime between November 1703 and May 1704, John Quelch came across a shipwreck in the West Indies where he found what all pirates hope for—gold. This gold is what made John Quelch’s name go down in history, as it eventually led to his trial and then death.In May 1704, John Quelch and his crew anchored the Charles back in Marblehead. Soon thereafter, rumors of Captain Quelch’s successful adventures spread, and the Boston News-Letter published an article about the gold on May 22. This intrigued the Charles’s previous owners as it brought up questions about what had happened—the ship left with one captain but came back with another and much illicit loot. On May 24, the Lieutenant-Governor of Boston, who had also caught on, declared that John Quelch and his crew were “violently suspected to have gotten and obtained [the gold] by felony and piracy.”[2] This announcement led Quelch’s crew to scatter throughout the New England coast.Still, the authorities were hard to escape. Soon after Lieutenant-Governor Povey’s statement, Captain John Quelch and five of his men were arrested for multiple accounts of piracy, robbery, and murder. The trial against them took place in June 1704, and was the first piracy trial held outside of London. Captain Quelch and the other imprisoned men were not granted a jury during their trial, but were instead convicted by judges of the Boston Court of Admiralty. Even with a noose around his neck, Quelch maintained his innocence: “I am condemned only upon circumstances.”[3] News of Quelch’s trial and hanging, along with his eerie last words, made it across the Atlantic Ocean, to London, where an account of his arraignment, trial, and condemnation was published. Captain John Quelch was hanged on June 30, 1704.— Emma Donald______________________________________[1] “The Arraignment, Tryal, and Condemnation, of Capt. John Quelch, and Others of His Company.” Ben Bragg: Avemary Lane, London, 1704.[2] “John Quelch and His Crew who were Hanged in Boston and Their Gold Distributed.” The Pirates of the New England Coast, 1630-1730, by George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, Dover Publications, 1996, pp. 99-115.[3] “John Quelch and His Crew who were Hanged in Boston and Their Gold Distributed.” The Pirates of the New England Coast, 1630-1730, by George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, Dover Publications, 1996, pp. 99-115.[4] Chand, Rakashi. “The Beehive. The Official Blog of the MHS.” The End of Piracy: Pirates Hanged in Boston 300 Years Ago | Beehive, 15 Nov. 2017, www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2017/11/the-end-of-piracy-pirates-hanged-in-boston-300-years-ago/.[5] Fiorentino, Welsey. “The Beehive. The Official Blog of the MHS.” Pirates in Boston: The Trial and Execution of John Quelch | Beehive, 28 Jan. 2015, www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2015/01/pirates-in-boston-the-trial-and-execution-of-john-quelch/.[6] Hershey, Peter. “Regulating Jolly Roger: The Existing and Developing Law Governing the Classification of Underwater Cultural Heritage as ‘Pirate-Flagged.’” University of Massachusetts Law Review, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 133–135., scholarship.law.umassd.edu.[7] Klein, Christopher. “The Surprising History of American Pirates - The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, The Boston Globe, 15 Sept. 2018, www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2018/09/15/the-surprising-history-american-pirates/fvXiyZWVT5bwU730FxUxlL/story.html. Pictured: The Arraingment, Tryal, and Comdemnation of Capt. John Quelch (London, 1705).**To go to James Franklin’s Print House (Site 7), head west on State St. towards Washington St. Continue onto Court St. where the destination will be on the right.**
Benjamin Franklin, Pirate Balladeer
Benjamin Franklin wrote “The Taking of Teach the Pirate,” a ballad, while he was working at his brother James’s print shop in Boston, the spot where you are currently standing. The ballad that Franklin wrote describes the final fight of the pirate Edward Teach or Blackbeard, and it provides a historical connection between Benjamin Franklin, a notable Founding Father of America and the piracy that infested the Atlantic during the eighteenth century. This ballad reveals how ballads were news sources in the eighteenth century: ballads were often used to spread news and, because of their catchiness as songs, were extremely popular and easy to digest for townsfolk who were not literate. “The Taking of Teach the Pirate” also gives an important glimpse into Benjamin Franklin’s life—and perhaps, the lives of many men living on the East Coast who had dreams of going out to sea to find wealth and notoriety.Benjamin Franklin, in his Autobiography, noted that as a child he “had a strong Inclination for the Sea.”[1] In Boston he was exposed to all sorts of sailors, fishermen, and other seamen: “living near the Water… [he] learnt early to swim well, and to manage Boats,” and “[he] was generally a Leader among the Boys, and sometimes led them into Scrapes.”[2] Franklin’s troublesome ways were certainly the attitude necessary to leave “civilized” society for a life aboard a ship. As he grew older, he “still had a Hankering for the Sea,” and in order to “prevent the apprehended Effect of such an Inclination,” his father had Ben “bound to [his] brother” at the print shop.[3]As a bound apprentice, Ben had to pocket his “Inclination for the Sea.” He participated in printing and even writing for The New-England Courant¸ which was a “lively journal” that “expressed strong opinions on religion, politics, free speech.”[4] James “put [Franklin] on composing two occasional Ballads at the newspaper.”[5] One of these ballads was “The Taking of Teach the Pirate,” which James “sent [Ben] about the town to sell.”[6] It seems that Franklin could not so easily forget about his seafaring dreams.While the wording of the ballad is formed like a story, thereby making it more attractive to the average reader, the information in it is accurate. The ballad mentions that Teach was sailing around “Carolina” when the final fight happened, and Teach was “slain inside Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina.”[7]Additionally, Lieutenant Maynard was the person responsible for defeating Teach and his crew: Franklin recognizes him as “Valiant Maynard.” Meanwhile, Teach is portrayed in the ballad as a drunk and “unsteady” to his “Lady.”[8] This no doubt contributes to the portrayal of pirates today as drunken womanizers. At the end of the ballad, after the fight, Franklin writes that “Teach’s Head was made a Cover, To the Jack Staff of the Ship,”[9] which agrees with many eighteenth-century and modern accounts: “Blackbeard’s head was strung up from his bowsprit,” according to a current historian,[10] and a journal entry from Lieutenant Maynard confirms the same.[11]What was so important about Teach that Franklin was assigned to write a ballad about him? Blackbeard had an “infamous reputation,” which he earned by fighting the Royal Navy along the New England coastline.[12] Blackbeard also pillaged islands off the coast of the Caribbean islands, “leaving fear and destruction in his wake.”[13] In sum, Teach was a vicious pirate who, like his other piratical contemporaries, “captivated the public imagination” through accounts in the Boston News-Letter, which circulated throughout the colonies.[14] Teach, ultimately, was a pirate whose well-known adventures had a lasting effect on trade and public opinion.Given that Franklin says he aspired to be a seaman when he was a kid, we can see this ballad as a way for him to incorporate his dreams of the high seas into his job at his brother’s printing shop. If his father had not constrained him to working at James Franklin’s printing press, would our famous Founding Father have turned out differently? Would he have become a successor to the fearsome Blackbeard?— Kirby Assaf______________________________________[1] Franklin 939.[2] Franklin 939.[3] Franklin 942.[4] The Massachusetts Historical Society provides a helpful glimpse of Ben Franklin’s writing career, including details about the New-England Courant, at www.masshist.org /online/silence_dogood/.[5] Franklin 942.[6] Franklin would have learned about the death of Edward Teach through local newspapers and word of mouth. Thomas Leonard, a writer at The New England Quarterly in 1999, looked into the information behind the ballad as well as the usefulness of the ballad as a form of news. According to Leonard, Franklin most likely would have gotten his information from The Boston News-Letter, which was a prominent local paper. They knew this is where Franklin got his information because of the descriptive information in the ballad. The ballad accounts how there were fifty men serving under Maynard, and sixteen were lost in the fight. While many different newspapers around the times would have had information that may have been incorrect, Leonard notes that by looking into the numbers in newspapers that would have been available to the Franklins at the time, the only newspaper that matches would have been the Boston News-Letter, which would have indeed described the fight with the numbers fifty and sixteen (Leonard 449). Therefore, we can assume that Benjamin would have gotten his news from the local Boston News-Letter.[7] Cooke 305.[8] Leonard 446.[9] Leonard 447.[10] Woodard.[11] Cooke 306.[12] Woodard.[13] Woodard.[14] Woodard. Pictured: Benjamin Franklin (Engraved by H.B. Hall from a painting by J.A. Duplessis). Blackbeard from A General History of Pyrates (London, 1724).**To go to N.P. Willis’s Office (Site 8), head west on Court St. The destination will be on the right.**
N.P Willis’s advocacy for international copyright using “The Corsair.”
Here at 17 Court St. you can see a placard detailing the site's significance to Boston, particularly Ben Franklin's apprenticeship in his brother's print shop, yet the site also possesses ties to piracy in publishing. Nathaniel Parker Willis was born in 1806 and later worked in the printing office of James Franklin, the brother of Ben Franklin. During his time working at 17 Court St in Boston, he published a magazine called The Corsair, originally called The Pirate, focusing on fashion and fops (A fop was a man foolishly concerned with his appearance and clothes). Although not noted on the placard, Nathaniel Willis should also be remembered for his work in fighting against literary piracy and the fight for international copyright. Nathaniel Willis “felt very bitterly about the absence of international copyright,” which led to literary piracy.[1] During Willis’s time in Boston, The Corsair became a popular newspaper, particularly for its piratical title and inclusion of pirate stories.The Corsair featured heavily during another author's description of the fight for American copyright. International copyright was nonexistent in the mid 19th century. Literary scholar Meredith McGill argued that “American reluctance to support the passage of an international copyright law was a regrettable instance of the tyranny of the majority, a fear of publicly criticizing the status quo that reduced even thoughtful literary gentlemen to guilty silence.”[2] Stealing intellectual property came to be considered a form of piracy and “history suggests that a radical reconfiguration of what we now call intellectual property may be approaching, driven on by antipiracy measures much as the piracy itself.”[3] Nathaniel Willis worked hard during the time he wrote The Corsair to fight for American copyright laws. Although literacy piracy may not seem like the common use for word "pirates", piracy means the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work. Willis thought that “no property, however personal, however rich in sentimental value, should be exempt from circulation,” and this particular focus started Willis’s fight against literary piracy.[4]The current site in Boston would benefit from a larger placard with more information to commemorate Nathaniel Willis's fight against intellectual piracy, which is still relevant in today’s society. Ironically, Willis's work sometimes came under fire for violating copyright, which made his fight to international copyright seem ironic. Nathaniel in his writing made unattributed references to other literary works and incorporated the work of other authors without giving them credit, thus doing the opposite of what he advocated.[5] The intellectual property of the people has always been contested. For example, “When a biotechnology company employs officers who turn agents provocateurs in order to catch unwary farmers in the act of ‘seed piracy’.”2 Current fights over intellectual property show how hard it is to determine where to draw the line. Nathaniel Willis brought the fight for intellectual piracy from London to America through his work with The Corsair. Willis continued with many writings after The Corsair which led him to be somewhat of a literary star. He published Edgar Allan Poe and other writers of significance. The Corsair started of much of Willis’s writing success because after his first works be continued to become a notable writer traveling all over the world to places like London and Ireland. His success as a writer and ties to literary piracy should be recognized on this site. — Caitlyn Bucci_________________________________________[1] Henry A. Beers, Nathaniel Parker Willis (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1890), 10. Internet Archive, archive.org/details/nathanielparkerw00beeruoft/page/n10.[2] Meredith McGill, American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834-1853 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) Jstor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt4cghh7.9.[3] Adrian Johns, Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010) Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6990457-piracy.[4] Sandra Tomc, “An Idle Industry: Nathaniel Parker Willis and the Workings of Literary Leisure.” American Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 4, 1997, 780–805. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30041811.[5] “N. P. Willis: The Corsair [Volume 5, Issue 10, Oct 1839; Pp. 694-696].” N. P. Willis: The Corsair, Making of America Journal Articles, Oct. 1839, quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acf2679.0005.010/704:20?rgn=main%3Aview. Pictured: The Corsair, volume 1, issue 1. A New York packet ship arriving in England, colored lithograph, 1834. This is the kind of ship that would have transported literary materials back to New York to be published in The Corsair. Nathaniel Parker Willis (c. mid-1850s).**To go to Boston Gaol (Site 9), head west on Court St. toward Court Square. Cross Court St. and the destination will be on the right.**
Captain Kidd’s Last Stop
The Boston Gaol was built in 1635 and for nearly 200 years remained the town and county jail. Those who found themselves imprisoned here included pirates, Quakers, murderers, rebels and the Salem witches. The conditions were horrid behind the stone walls; as Daniel Fowle, author of the 1755 pamphlet called “A Total Eclipse of Liberty” put it, of “hell upon earth, [it] is the nearest resemblance of any I can conceive of.”[1] It took over 150 years for the jail to heat the cells in the brutal winter months and to provide a blanket for every inmate. At the time when the notorious pirate Captain Kidd was an inmate, there were no such luxuries. Born in Scotland in the mid-seventeenth century, William Kidd never anticipated one day becoming one of the most infamous pirates in history. By the time he had reached the age of 30, Kidd was known as one of the most skilled and valued ship’s officers of his age. He was recognized for his achievements and was appointed the captain of a privateer vessel named the Adventure Galley. His assignment was to patrol the Indian Ocean to mitigate piratical attacks on merchant ships. It was during this period when Kidd likely realized that he had little to gain as a captain of a privateer vessel and more to gain as a pirate. Still the story goes that tropical fevers killed off many of his crew, and Kidd started loosing his authority over what crew he had left. When a rowdy gunner named William Moore urged a piratical attack on Dutch ship, Kidd bludgeoned the man, giving him a head wound from which he later died. Unhappy with their ill-success at privateering, his crew decided to raid merchant ships alongside the pirates of the Indian Ocean.[2]In its most notable capture, the Adventure Galley took possession of the 400-ton Quedah Merchant and its valuable cargo of silk, sugar and opium. In April of 1699, Kidd reached the West Indies. He had hoped that he wouldn’t be recognized, but word of his reputation had spread throughout the Indian Ocean. In trouble with the law, he made his way to Boston on a ship named the San Antonio. On this trip, Kidd made a stop off the coast of Long Island and buried some of his treasures on Gardiner’s Island. Hoping that the (false) French passes that he had found aboard the Quedah Merchant would allow him to claim the prize as valid under his privateering comission, Kidd had reached out to an old acquaintance by the name of Lord Bellomont, who then turned on him and demanded that Kidd be arrested upon his arrival in July of 1699. Kidd held as a prisoner at the Boston Gaol until he was deported to England for his trial.[3]In April of 1700, Kidd was ordered to be tried for piracy in London. He was sent to Newgate Prison and stayed there for over a year before facing his trial at the Old Bailey in May of 1701. Found guilty of murder and piracy, Kidd was swifty sentenced to death. Kidd was hanged in London’s East End, and shockingly, it took two tries to kill him. For the three years that followed, Captains Kidd’s body hung at Tilbury Point on the Thames River as a warning to all other pirates.[4]At the time of his hanging, a number of broadsides, serving as public “matters record and biography,”[5]. made an appearance. Popular for over 150 years, these ballads (particularly one named “The Dying Words of Captain Kidd”) were sold and sung by people on both sides of the Atlantic. The legend of Kidd’s buried treasure resonated with people as well as served as the topic for many stories, including Edgar Allan Poe’s tale, “The Gold Bug” in which the main character Legrand deciphers a cryptogram to discover the buried treasure Kidd left behind.[6] Poe’s story, published nearly 150 years after Kidd’s death, was not the end of the interest in Kidd’s treasure: today people still search for the buried gold.Standing on what is believed to be “the oldest plot of land continuously owned by the City of Boston," the tall concrete building that occupies the former site of the Boston Gaol hides the story of Captain Kidd’s incarceration and Boston’s close link with the Golden Age of Piracy.[7]—Meridith Dantzscher______________________________________[1] Leverett Street Jail. The West End Museum, http://thewestendmuseum.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/01_Panel-Leverett-St-Jail-2-9-15.pdf.[2]Norris, David A. “CAPTAIN KIDD. (Cover Story).” History Magazine 16, no. 1 (October 2014): 14–18. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=98742765&site=eds-live&scope=site[3]Norris, David A. “CAPTAIN KIDD. (Cover Story).” History Magazine 16, no. 1 (October 2014): 14–18. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=98742765&site=eds-live&scope=site[4]Norris, David A. “CAPTAIN KIDD. (Cover Story).” History Magazine 16, no. 1 (October 2014): 14–18. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=98742765&site=eds-live&scope=site[5]Bonner, Willard Hallam. "The Ballad of Captain Kidd." American Literature 15, no. 4 (1944): 362-80. doi:10.2307/2920762.[6] Poe, Edgar Allan, and Jacob Landau. The Gold Bug: and Other Tales and Poems. New York: Macmillan, 1953.[7]Handy, Delores. “From Boston's 1st Jail To Fugitive Slave Trials, 26 Court St. Has History.” From Boston's 1st Jail To Fugitive Slave Trials, 26 Court St. Has History | WBUR News, WBUR, 8 Apr. 2015, https://www.wbur.org/news/2015/04/08/boston-old-courthouse-jail-court-street.Pictured: Captain Kidd (whose name changed to Robert in the American tradition) burying a Bible in The Pirates Own Book (Charles Ellms: Boston, 1837). The gibbetted Captain Kidd from The Pirates Own Book (Charles Ellms: Boston, 1837). "The Dying Words of Captain Robert Kidd" (Nathaniel Coverly: Boston, early nineteenth century).**To learn more about the Boston Gaol (Site 10), walk approximately 10 feet west on Court St.**
The Boston Gaol and Joseph Bradish
Welcome to the site of the Boston Gaol, the first jail in Boston. The gaol housed pirates, slaves, witches, and more during its time. Here, at 26 Court Street where the infamous building stood, the pirate Captain Joseph Bradish (1672-1700) was once held for his crimes against the state. The Golden Age of Piracy took place between 1650 and 1720, during which time thousands of pirates were active on the seas, causing fear and distress among countless nations, and stealing priceless goods from anyone whose paths they crossed. Even in the Colonies, piracy was rampant. Viewed by the majority of Colonists and governments as ruthless, pirates were commonly hanged for their crimes. Joseph Bradish and his fellow pirates terrorized the world for many years during the Golden Age of Piracy, and the Boston Gaol served as a pillar of safety for the people of Boston, who believed, they were saved from the treachery of the prisoners once those criminals were entombed inside the gaol's walls. As Justin Winsor notes, the stone jail--a “gloomy” and “somber” place with thick stone walls--must have filled those who were held there with dread.[1] So too piracy frightened those in Boston. Buildings such as the Gaol served as constant reminders of the dangers of the time.Joseph Bradish, born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, would become one of the most dangerous and infamous pirates held in the Boston Gaol, alongside another well-known pirate of the seventeenth century, Captain Kidd. Joseph left home for the sea at the age of twenty-five, when he was a crew mate aboard the ship the Adventurer, which was bound for Borneo, that largest island in Asia. Before reaching the destination, however, a mutiny occurred. After marooning the captain and officers on an Indian island, Joseph was elected the new pirate captain of the ship, and they sailed back to Long Island.[2] Bradish and his crew of twenty-six pirates unloaded their stolen goods from the Adventurer, which included a multitude of jewels and pieces of eight. Bradish and his men then sank the Adventurer and travelled to Massachusetts, thinking themselves free and clear from being caught as pirates. As author Edward Rowe Snow says in his book Pirates and Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast, “as soon as they entered the great seaport, the authorities arrested them and threw them into the great stone jail.”[3] Bradish was related to one of the jailers, however, and after several weeks of planning was able to attempt his escape from prison. The relative was dismissed on site by the Governor of Massachusetts, who then put out a reward of two hundred pieces of eight for anyone who could capture and return Bradish to the stone jail. Bradish was soon recaptured by an Indian sachem, and was returned to the jail to be held until he was eventually shipped to London to be hanged.The building where he was held was the last relic of his piratical history, and therefore offered a historical monument to the long history of piracy in the United States. The Boston Gaol, also referred to as the Great Stone Jail, was retired in 1836 after the inmate demand became too much for the small space, so it was replaced by the Leverett Street Jail.[4] Once the building ceased being a jail, it was turned into a court, which housed many slave trials before finally being demolished in 1912. A new building was erected in its place, which housed the annex for Boston’s City Hall.[5]While the original building where Bradish was held no longer stands, its history remains. Looking at the impressive building on the site today, it is not hard to imagine it as a holding place for notorious and dangerous people, such as Joseph Bradish and Captain Kidd. Even now, in the midst of the hustle and bustle there are signs that link modern Boston to its piratical past.— Selma Watson_________________________________________[1] J. Winsor, “A Memorial History of Boston.” The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, archive.org/stream/memorialhistoryo01wins?ref=ol#page/xxiv/mode/2up/search/court street.[2] “Census • Person • Captain Joseph Bradish.” Colonial Sense, www.colonialsense.com/Society-Lifestyle/Census/Person/Captain_Joseph_Bradish/5710.php.[3] Edward Rowe Snow, Pirates and Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast (Boston: Yankee Pub. Co, Jan. 1970), Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/piratesbuccaneer00snow/page/238.[4] Delores Handy, “From Boston's 1st Jail To Fugitive Slave Trials, 26 Court St. Has History.” From Boston's 1st Jail To Fugitive Slave Trials, 26 Court St. Has History | WBUR News, WBUR, 8 Apr. 2015, www.wbur.org/news/2015/04/08/boston-old-courthouse-jail-court-street.[5] Edward Rowe Snow, Pirates and Buccaneers of the Atlantic Coast (Boston: Yankee Pub. Co, 1970), Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/piratesbuccaneer00snow/page/238.Picured: A true list of prisoners held in the Boston Gaol, 1777.**To go to William Minot’s Office (Site 11), head west on Court St. toward Court Square and the destination will be on the right.**
Here Lies the Pickled Head of Captain John Phillips
Boston's rich history includes the story of Captain John Phillips, a pirate whose trail location is where the late Boston lawyer William Minot’s office was. The connection between Captain John Phillips and William Minot is not a pleasant one. Captain John Phillips did what what most pirates are known for: stealing. Specifically, he stole a schooner owned by William Minot, who was a well-known Massachusetts lawyer.[1] After many adventures sailed on Minot’s boat, which he renamed Revenge, Captain John Phillips was brutally murdered by his own crew who sent his head to William Minot’s office in a pickle barrel.[2] Before his untimely death, John Phillips led an adventurous life filled to the brim with piracy.John Phillips started his piratical career as a ship's carpenter. Because of his carpentry skills, pirate captain Thomas Anstis forced him to become a part of his pirate crew as the ship’s carpenter.[3] Since his piratical career started suddenly and not by his own choice, it took him some time to find his own sealegs. While part of Anstis’s crew, a British warship found their boat, causing Anstis to abandon his crew. John Phillips was clever enough to go into hiding and gave up on piracy for awhile.[4] After hiding out for a time, he still craved adventure from his boring life, so he got together with the rest of the marooned crew who elected John Phillips as the captain of their new pirate ship.[5]Captain John Phillips' first order of business as pirate captain eventually contributed to his legacy, since William Minot’s schooner was not the first ship he stole. Before setting off to sea with his new crew, he captured several small fishing boats and obtained more people for his crew.[6] They also stole a Portuguese ship and various other boats called sloops.[7] Most of his piratical crimes were in fact stealing boats. In total, Captain John Phillips stole thirteen nautical vessels during his short piratical career.[8]Eight months later, Captain John Phillips time as a pirate soon came to an abrupt end. Most, if not all, of his crew mutinied because Phillips was a very controlling captain who did not want any of his crew members to leave him. For example, Captain Phillips heard about one of his crew planning to leave the ship because of Phillips’ treatment of the crew, so Phillips stabbed him to death.[9] This stabbing did not scare the rest of the crew into submission, however, as the rest of the crew later mutinied and killed John Phillips with an axe. They threw his body overboard along with anyone who continued to support him, but kept Captain John Phillips’ head as a souvenir. They nailed it to the main mast of their ship before eventually shipping it in a pickle barrel to William Minot, whose ship was the last on that Phillips stole.[10] There is no historical marker describing Captain John Phillips or the location of William Minot’s office. Back in the 1700s, his office was situated on what is now known as Court Street, but the actual building no longer remains.[11] Only a Starbucks and the site of the old Boston Jail, which is where Captain Kidd was held, mark the location to which a notorious Boston pirate's head was delivered in a pickle barrel.—Adrianna King___________________________[1] Henry Hall, Americas Successful Men of Affairs: an Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography (Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1996). [2] Edward Rowe Snow, Pirates, Shipwrecks, and Historic Chronicles. (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1981).[3] Charles Johnson, Pirates (Creation, 1999).[4] Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724), 340.[5] Charles Johnson, Pirates (Creation, 1999).[6] Charles Johnson, Pirates (Creation, 1999).[7] “Captain John Phillips.” Consejo Belize, http://consejo.bz/Pirates/phillips/phillips.html (Accessed October 14, 2019).[8] Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724), 405.[9] Gordon Harris, et al., “The Reluctant Pirate from Ipswich, Captain John Fillmore,” Historic Ipswich, 8 Mar. 2019, https://historicipswich.org/2014/12/02/ reluctant-pirate/.[10] Gordon Harris, et al., “The Reluctant Pirate from Ipswich, Captain John Fillmore,” Historic Ipswich, 8 Mar. 2019, https://historicipswich.org/2014/12/02/ reluctant-pirate/.[11] George Washington Bromley and Walter Scott Bromley, Atlas of the city of Boston : city proper and Roxbury (1890). Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:m900r720z (accessed October 01, 2019).Pictured: Captain John Phillips. Court Street from John Groves Hale "Map of Boston in the state of Massachusetts" 1814. **To go to Flag of our Union Office (Site 12), head northwest on Court St. and turn left toward Tremont St. Arrive at Site 12. **
The Flag of Our Union, Making Pirates Popular
From 1846 to 1870, The Flag of Our Union (first called Gleason’s) printed, a weekly newspaper and pamphlet novels at 6 Tremont Street.[1] The Flag of Our Union, located near Boston Harbor and run by Frederick Gleason, provided books for sailors, who would often stop in and browse for books to read in their leisure time aboard ship.[2] They, as well as other Boston residents, gravitated towards books about sea crime and adventure due to their and the city’s strong connection with the ocean.[3] As a result, The Flag of Our Union (and its previous iterations) published books about pirates such as Blackbeard (1847), The Pirate Queen (1847), and Francisco, or the Pirate of the Pacific (1845) by Benjamin Barker; The Corsair King (1847) by Charles Averill; The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main (1847) and The Red Revenger: or, The Pirate King of the Floridas (1852) by Ned Buntline; and many more. It is important to note that the price was 3 or 4 cents per book, which made them accessible to and popular with the working class.[4]In many books published by The Flag of Our Union, pirates are painted as evil and villainous, and sailors are painted as brave and heroic. Given that the name The Flag of Our Union shows support for the state, it makes sense that sailors are painted as heroes and pirates as antisocial. Among this class of books is the popular The Pirate Queen (1847) by Benjamin Barker. This book is about a group of people who were sailing when a pirate ship stops them. The crew courageously decides to fight the pirates and defend their ship: “bravely did the ship’s officers and crew struggle in that dreadful carnage… [they] proved themselves prodigies of valor and sent the soul of many a ferocious pirate to its last account.”[5] Although the crew loses against the pirates, they are depicted as extremely courageous. This scene is meant to inspire sailors to act bravely and patriotically to fight pirates, even if that meant their death.The Flag of Our Union also published another popular book in 1847 about pirates called Blackbeard, or The Pirate of the Roanoke, which paints sailors as morally good and superior to pirates. This book includes instances of kidnapping, murder, and attempted murder. In this book, Blackbeard, an evil and bloodthirsty pirate, kidnaps two people and separates them from their crew. The crew then rescues them, and a “fight [begins], and soon [becomes] general, but although the pirates [fight] desperately, they [are] soon overpowered by the superior numbers and coolness of their adversaries.”[6] This reading offers a sense of adventure and fantasy that people cannot get in their everyday lives. In addition, because all is right at the end of the book, this and other novels published by Frederick Gleason allow readers a sense of adventure while ultimately also reinforcing the stability of the nation state. Such a reality appeals to sailors and other people who rely on the sea for raw goods because they need to use and want to trust the ocean.The Flag of Our Union books were not only sold in Boston but also well beyond this coastal city, starting with the phenomenal success of Fanny Campbell, the piratical novel by Marturin Murray Ballou (which you will hear more about later on this walk). The popularity of this novel led Ballou and Gleason to co-found what quickly became The Flag of Our Union, “the United States’ largest publishing plant.”[7] Through Gleason’s publishing efforts, modern fictional pirate stories took off—and remain a type of literature still popular today with those invested in a thrilling read about adventure among the high seas.— Serena Rizzo_____________________________[1] “The Flag of Our Union.” The Library of Congress. Accessed October 1, 2019. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85036056/.[2] Paul A. Gilje, To Swear like a Sailor Maritime Culture in America 1750-1850. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 183.[3] Gilje, To Swear like a Sailor Maritime Culture in America 1750-1850, 184.[4] Shelley Streeby, American Sensations: Class, Empire, and the Production of Popular Culture. (Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Pr., 2006), 87.[5] Benjamin Barker The Pirate Queen, or, The Magician of the Sea: a Tale of the Piratical Era. (Boston: Flag of Our Union Office, 1970), 16.[6] Benjamin Barker Blackbeard, or The Pirate of the Roanoke (Boston: F. Gleason, 1847), 47.[7] Anderson, "Female Pirates and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Fictions" Pirates and Mutineers of the Nineteenth Century: Swashbucklers and Swindlers. 96-115.Pictured: The Corsair Kidd. By Charles Averill (Boston: F. Gleason Publishing Hall, 1847). Francisco, or the Pirate of the Pacific. A Tale of Land and Sea. By Benjamin Barker (Boston: United States Publishing Company, 1845). Red Rupert, The American Buccaneer. By Lieutenant Murray (Boston: Gleason's Publishing Hall, 1848). The Red Revenger: or, The Pirate King of the Floridas. By Ned Buntline. (Boston: F. Gleason's Publishing Hall, 1852).**To go to John Hancock’s Grave (Site 13), head west on Tremont St. At the intersection of Tremont Street and Beacon Street, take a right and then left to cross Beacon Street. Continue on Tremont Street, and turn right into Granary Burying Ground. Turn left and the destination will be on the right.**
John Hancock: Smuggler, Pirate, and Slave Owner
In Granary Burying Grounds sits the grave of a well-known founding father, John Hancock, however, many are oblivious to the disreputable aspects of his career. John Hancock accumulated his wealth by pirating goods with merchant vessels before and during the Revolutionary War. His smuggling tactics, emulated by many others in and around Boston, became a force which defied the British when the Colonies began pulling away from their mother country.Participating in this form of piracy, Hancock had multiple run-ins with British law enforcement. After a previous failed attempt, British officers intercepted Hancock’s ship the Liberty bringing in casks of wine on May 9, 1768. They noted their suspicions but let Hancock unload and pay his tax. On June 9, 1768, a customs officer revised his statement regarding his time aboard the Liberty the previous month. He claimed to have seen more than the taxed casks and was thrown in the hold after refusing a bribe. Instead of awaiting legal action proceeding the report made by Joseph Harrison, British officer Benjamin Hallowell insisted that they seize the ship. With crewmembers aboard a British vessel, Hallowell boarded the ship, but an altercation arose as members of the Liberty’s crew defended it. Hallowell and Harrison fled after the fight escalated, and a crowd of 3,000 Bostonians gathered. The mob, upset by the disregard of proper legal proceedings and the British presence in Boston harbor, damaged Hallowell’s home and beached Harrison’s vessel, torching it after the men escaped.[1] This riot became known as the Liberty Affair.[2] During the following trial, John Adams defended Hancock, and the smuggling charges against him were dropped. The return of the Liberty, however, could not be negotiated.[3]Since Hancock was well known, the British thought he would be the perfect example of the consequences of defying the British crown. While the British used the trial to boost publicity, a number of historians claim that they employed false evidence.[4]Five years later, the Boston Tea Party took place. This destruction of goods from the ships was an act of piracy by legal standards. While Hancock was not directly involved, it is clear that he endorsed the destruction of the tea since the East Indian Company cut its tea prices to compete with Hancock’s.[5] Hancock was also close with Sam Adams who orchestrated the event, and whose cousin previously defended him in court.[6]These instances of piracy paint Hancock as a criminal. Yet Hancock was voted governor of Boston for nine terms. As governor, Hancock was respected. A letter written by a concerned citizen in 1782 urged Hancock to seek peace.[7] The letter-writter regarded Hancock as a reasonable man, though in his capacity as President of the Continental Congress, Hancock had supported Revolution and signed privateering liscences (like the one shown above). In his final term, although unable to stand or walk unassisted, the public still chose Hancock to lead their community.[8] It’s clear that Hancock was highly esteemed in the community, which recognized his admirable traits.Despite how we remember Hancock as one who fought for Liberty, Hancock was a slave-owner. The gravestone at the foot of Hancock’s grave reads “Frank” with no surname or any other indicators of this man’s identity. Frank, a slave of Hancock family, was buried here in 1771. No real details are known of Frank’s life other than his enslaved status.[9]When we praise Hancock's contributions to the history of the Revolution, we should also recall his involvement in smuggling and slave ownership, two forms of piracy.—Autumn West_____________________________________[1] “The Liberty Affair – John Hancock Loses a Ship and Starts a Riot.” New England Historical Society. New England Historical Society, June 10, 2019. http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-liberty-affair-john-hancock-loses-a-ship-and-starts-a-riot/.[2] O. M. Dickerson, "John Hancock: Notorious Smuggler or Near Victim of British Revenue Racketeers?" The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 32, no. 4 (1946): 517-40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1895239.[3] “The Liberty Affair – John Hancock Loses a Ship and Starts a Riot.” New England Historical Society. New England Historical Society, June 10, 2019. http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-liberty-affair-john-hancock-loses-a-ship-and-starts-a-riot/.[4] O. M. Dickerson, "John Hancock: Notorious Smuggler or Near Victim of British Revenue Racketeers?" The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 32, no. 4 (1946): 517-40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1895239.[5] “John Hancock - Smuggling Powerhouse.” Boston Tea Party Historical Society. Holypark Media, 2008. http://www.boston-tea-party.org/smuggling/John-Hancock.html.[6] “John Hancock - Smuggling Powerhouse.” Boston Tea Party Historical Society. Holypark Media, 2008. http://www.boston-tea-party.org/smuggling/John-Hancock.html.[7] William Heath, “Letter to John Hancock about Peace,” Highlands, N.Y., January 1, 1782. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/lettertojohnhanc00heat_0.[8] Barbara A. Somervill, John Hancock: Signer for Independence (Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2005).[9] Glenn A. Knoblock, African American Historic Burial Grounds and Gravesites of New England (Jefferson, NC: McFarland et Company, Inc., Publishers, 2016).Pictured: Letter of Marque allowing for privateering signed by John Hancock. Frank's grave, at the foot of John Hancock's grave .**To go to Great Elm (Site 14), head northeast and take a right onto Tremont St. Cross Park Street onto Boston Common. Continue down Tremont Street along the Common and take a right into the park. Turn right and then take another right. The destination will be straight-ahead.**
The Great Elm: Boston’s Hanging
Located within the Boston Common and a short distance away from the Freedom Trail that runs through the Common is a plaque commemorating the historic Great Elm,. The Great Elm was an American Elm tree that embodied Boston’s particular reputation and cultural association with colonial development, Revolutionary history, liberty, and justice, as the plaque describes the tree’s usage as an assembly place for the revolutionary Sons of Liberty as well as a site for some of the first Methodist sermons in Massachusetts.[1] The honorable history and usage for the Great Elm, however, is contrasted by its common public use as a hanging tree. Its reputed size and public accessibility made it an icon of the townspeople during Boston’s development. Among those who were punished by death here were pirates, religious “convicts,” indigenous Americans, punished enslaved people, those accused of witchcraft, and other felons.[2]Rachel Wall, who followed in the piratical tradition of the two most famous women-pirates, Ann Bonney and Mary Read, was just one of the pirates executed at this tree, but she notably was the last woman in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to be subjected to death by hanging. On October 8, 1789, a crowd of thousands gathered to watch her public execution, which demonstrated the popularity of such events prior to the 19th century. Rachel Wall had a history of theft but only engaged in piracy between 1781 and 1782 off the New Hampshire coast, when she had admitted to assisting in the capture of 12 ships and killing their crews with her husband and fellow pirates. Although Wall was caught and tried for robbery in Boston, she requested that she be tried as a pirate despite the certainty that she would be sentenced to death. Her loyalty to the title of a pirate exemplifies an attitude both of a pirate’s pride in their actions and the popular notions of piracy as lawless and anarchic. Rachel Wall being the last woman hanged by law in Massachusetts for being a pirate as opposed to her other felonies reflected how American governing forces opposed the havoc on law and commerce committed by pirates.[3]Although there is no exact age for the Great Elm, it was reported to have been standing in Boston since at least the 17th century during the settlement and initial building of the town.[4] The Great Elm was a familiar presence in old Boston, and high traffic in the Common stressed the Great Elm’s sociopolitical importance from a rallying place for revolutionary heroes to a place of everyday leisure and social activity, including capital punishment. At the point in which the Great Elm was too weathered and weak to support hangings from the tree itself, scaffolds and gallows were built next to the tree to continue public executions. Though used for important activities, the accessibility of Boston Common as a shared public space and later as a public park was stressed. “The rising ground from which the view is given is a short distance West of where the State House now stands, and was then a few rods from the old Hancock estate.”[5] With the rise of tourism, attention to the Great Elm increased so much that the tree suffered damage in addition to natural weathering and age, and it finally blew down in 1876 despite years of protective efforts.[6]The plaque for the Great Elm was placed by the Northeast Methodist Historical Society in the years following the its fall, particularly for the interest of preserving Methodist history where some of the largest early sermons were conducted at the Great Elm. The plaque placed there today reads:“Here the Sons of Liberty assembledHere Jesse Lee, Methodist pioneer, preached in 1790,The landmark of the Common, the Elm blew down in 1876Placed by the N.E. Methodist Historical Society.”While the Great Elm is commemorated with a plaque, its historic significance as a hanging site is all but forgotten.—Christina Jang_________________________________________[1] Wagner, Grace. “The Beehive. The Official Blog of the MHS.” The Tree on Boston Common | Beehive, 24 Feb. 2017 https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2017/02/the-tree-on-boston-common/.[2] Harris, John, and Erica Bollerud. The Boston Globe Historic Walks in Old Boston. Globe Pequot Press, 2000. 10-11[3] Edward Rowe Snow, Piracy, Mutiny, and Murder (New York: Dodd, Mead. 1969). 68-76.[4] Kaitlin Connolly, “The Great Elm on Boston Common.” The Great Elm on Boston Common, 1 Jan. 1970, http://mastatelibrary.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-great-elm-on-boston-common.html.[5] Jesse Lee, Memorial of Jesse Lee and the Old Elm. Eighty-Fifth Anniversary of Jesse Lee's Sermon under the Old Elm, Boston Common, Held Sunday Evening, July 11, 1875. With a Historical Sketch of the Great Tree” 1845-1934. (Boston, J. P. Magee, 1 Jan. 1875). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/memorialofjessel00hami/page/n8.[6] Kaitlin Connolly, “The Great Elm on Boston Common.” The Great Elm on Boston Common, 1 Jan. 1970, http://mastatelibrary.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-great-elm-on-boston-common.html.[7] Grace Wagner, “The Tree on Boston Common," The Beehive. The Official Blog of the MHS, 24 Feb. 2017, https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2017/02/the-tree-on-boston-common/.Pictured: The Great Elm, 1813. Though Anne Bonney and Mary Read are the most famous woman pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy, Rachel Wall was hanged for the crime. (Bonney & Read from A General History of Pyrates, London, 1725). **To go to the African Meeting House (Site 15), continue on the path and take a right and then a left towards Joy Street. Continue on Joy Street and take a left onto Smith Ct. where the destination will be on the left.**
The African Meeting House, A Beacon of Hope
The city of Boston is well known for its maritime life and its long history of piracy. Classical pirates invoked fear in the public and were heavily targeted by the law as evidenced by the number of execution sites on this trail. However, when discussing life at sea, there is another type of piracy that is often overlooked. The horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the transportation of human cargo is a piece of Boston’s history that many would rather forget. Compared to classical pirates, slave traders were accepted as members of society and encouraged to traffic humans for the benefit of the economy. The international transportation of human cargo did not become illegal until 1808, at which moment the transport of Africans to the United States legally became piracy. Even then, trading and keeping enslaved people within the US remained legal.You are currently standing underneath a sign and lantern marking the side of the African Meeting House. The exterior décor was most likely added when the building became part of the Museum of African American history in 1972, but the lantern holds symbolic meaning, as a light marking the entrance, seeing as the building was a place of hope and new beginnings for many Africans. The African Meeting House was constructed in 1806 through donations from African patrons and notably employed black craftsman in its construction. The building’s upper level was originally utilized as the First Independent Baptist church, while the ground-level room became the first school for blacks in Boston. The site is currently a national landmark and maintained by the National Park service. Visitors can pay to enter and take a tour of the building, or you can look at the images of the interior included here.The New England Antislavery Society was formed in the African Meeting House during January of 1832, under the guidance of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. At the time, Garrison was co-editor of The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper published weekly in Boston. Garrison, a devout Christian, used his paper to appeal to people’s morals, rather than political views and urged the public to demand an immediate emancipation of all slaves. The Liberator closely monitored the 1839 story of the Amistad, a slave ship, which was taken control of by the African captives. The ship was eventually overtaken by a U.S brig, and the Africans were taken into custody in New Haven, Connecticut. A debate ensued whether, although they had been kidnapped from their home, the Africans could be charged for piracy (given their seizure of the ship) and whether they were now legally property. The Antislavery Society and The Liberator felt strongly that the Africans should be released as free citizens. In an article published in September 1839, the paper wrote, “These Africans are not guilty of piracy. By the laws of civilized nations, as well as the laws of nature, these Africans by whomever they were seized and wheresoever held in bondage, had a right to assert their liberty, of which they had been deprived by force.”[1]The Amistad was not the only issue that the Antislavery Society addressed in their fight for freedom. In the years of its activity, the society made tremendous efforts to sway public opinion about slavery. It worked to directly aid runaway slaves, spoke before legislators, and petitioned Congress on many occasions. One of the Antislavery Society’s greatest achievements came in helping to organize the “Latimer Petition” in 1843. The petition, which included over sixty-thousand signatures from those living in Massachusetts, was presented to state legislation and helped in the creation of the “Latimer Law.” This law prevented state officials in Massachusetts from apprehending suspected escaped slaves and returning them to their former masters. Famous abolitionists including Frederick Douglass often spoke in the African Meeting House and equated slave owning to piracy claiming that “Men…by the single act of slaveholding voluntarily [place] themselves beyond the laws of justice and honor, and have become only fitted for companionship with thieves and pirates--the common enemies of God and of all mankind.”[2] The Antislavery Society was highly successful in fighting this piracy and helping create protective legislation for African Americans within the state of Massachusetts. In the decades following the criminalization of the importation of human cargo, organizations like the Antislavery Society, meeting in social hubs like the African Meeting House, took up the mantle, advocated for the rights of Africans, and fought the piracy that was race-based slavery.—Amanda Perry_________________________________[1] William Lloyd Garrison, “The Amistad---Piracy” The Liberator (Boston, MA, September 13, 1939[2] Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Ware: Wordsworth American Library, 1996.Pictured: View of the Main Meeting Room, originally the worship space of the First Independent Baptist Church. View of the Main Meeting Room from the upper balcony. The Liberator masthead.**To go to the Charlestown Ferry Site (Site 16), head east on Smith Ct. toward Joy Street. Take a left onto Joy Street. Turn right onto Cambridge Street. Turn left onto Staniford Street onto Causeway St. Make a slight left onto Commercial St. and the destination will be on the corner of Commercial Street and N Washington Street.**
The Hanging of Black Sam Bellamy’s Crew
You are now at the sight of the Old Charlestown Ferry Landing, most famously known for where six members of Black Sam Bellamy’s crew were hanged for piracy in 1717.On a cold April night in 1717 Sam Bellamy and his crew were sailing north along the East Coast of the then thirteen colonies when they ran into a Nor’easter. Facing unbeatable odds Bellamy’s ship, the Whydah, was off the coast of Wellfleet, Massachusetts when, “Bellamy dropped the anchor and the Whydah began a slow turn toward the wind, taking on thousands of tons of water over the gunwales as She was swept up by forty-foot waves.”[1] That was the end for Bellamy and most of his crew with only two surviving from the Whydah. Most of the crew from Bellamy’s other ship the Mary Anne survived, however, six members of the crew were captured, arrested, and subsequently taken to Boston. Those six crew members, Simon Vanvoorst, John Brown, Thomas Baker, Henrick Quinter, Peter Cornelius Hooff, and John Shuan were “visited in their cells and delivered long-winded sermons about their impending, eternal damnation” by Cotton Mather, minister of the Boston Parish.[2] He used these “talks” as forms of interrogation, trying to get each one of the pirates to admit to the charges brought against them. A few of the survivors tried to claim that they were forced into piracy and that they should not have been jailed. Mather had a particular hatred for pirates, and when speaking of the Bellamy’s pirates who claimed to have been forced into piracy, “he insisted that they should have died a martyr by the cruel hands of their pirate brethren rather than become one of their brethren.”[3] Mather visited the pirates everyday before their trial, in hopes of getting them to repent of their pirate ways.At their trial, each man was brought forth and asked by the ministers of Boston if their hearts had been changed by their discussions with Reverend Mather. A few tried to repent and receive a pardon, but it was too little too late. All six crew members were hanged for piracy. After the execution Mather used the time to build his power and the power of the church. It was normal for ministers to speak to the public, resembling what Mather said after the execution of Sam Bellamy’s crew, that they should “continue to entreat God “to do some remarkable thing for the destruction of pirates, by which our coast has been lately infested.”[4] The pirates actions and believes undermined everything that the church stood for. They challenged the authority of the church and weakened the church's control over seafaring folk. The church used terror, intimidation, and fear at executions as a way to build opposition against pirates and to restore faith in the church.Sam Bellamy’s crew members were tried in the “Old State House, found guilty, and hung on the mudflats of the Charlestown Ferry Landing”.[2]On this map from 1722 there is a thick line in the top half of the map, it is the "E&N. Mill Damm." Just to the right of the damn is the “Ferry to Charles-Town,” which was the site of the Charlestown Ferry Landing on the Boston side of the Charles River. Bellamy’s crew would have been hung just past the dock, just far enough into the water to warn visitors and residents of Boston of the crime of piracy.Boston was known for a time as one of the largest pirating hubs along the East Coast. The number of unwanted pirate ships stationed just outside of the harbor was enormous throughout the 17th century. During the Golden Age of piracy, pirates would bring stolen silver and other valued goods to Boston aiding the economy, so Boston favored them. That opinion changed when Boston’s economy was stable enough to support trade, and pirates were then seen as an infringement upon the safety and security of international trade because they had started to sack both incoming and departing ships. When Sam Bellamy’s crew was captured and brought to Boston, they were executed and hanged off the old Charlestown Ferry Landing. With the execution taking place, at the “gateway” of the city, Boston officials wanted to send a message to those in the city and to those (pirates) outside of the city of the dire consequences that fell upon those who chose the life of a pirate.—Michaela Hayes____________________________________[1] Sara Schubert. “Piracy, Riches, and Social Equality: The Wreck of the Whydah off Cape Cod.” Historical Journal of Massachusetts 34, no. 1 (Winter 2006): 29.[2] Colin Woodward. “Pirates In Boston.” Pirates in Boston -- The Republic of Pirates, 2008, 1 http://www.republicofpirates.net/BostonPirates.html.[3] Cotton Mather. Instructions to the living, from the condition of the dead. A brief relation of remarkables in the shipwreck of above one hundred pirates, who were cast away in the ship Whido, on the coast of New-England, April 26. 1717. And in the death of six, who after a fair trial at Boston, were convicted & condemned, Octob. 22. And executed, Novemb. 15. 1717. : With some account of the discourse had with them on the way to their execution. And a sermon preached on their occasion. (Boston: Printed by John Allen, for Nicholas Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill, 1717), 18. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N01600.0001.001?rgn=main;view.[4] Steven J. J. Pitt, "Cotton Mather and Boston's "Seafaring Tribe"." The New England Quarterly 85, no. 2 (2012): 26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23251810.Pictured: Detail of John Bonner's map "The town of Boston in New England," between 1723-33. The head of Spanish pirate Benevides, illustrating the sort of fate that awaited pirates (from The Pirates Own Book).**To go to John Quelch’s Execution Site (Site 17), head northeast and turn right onto Commercial Street. Turn left onto Hull Street. The destination will be on the left.**
The Last Words of John Quelch
On June 30, 1704, Captain John Quelch and six crew members dangled lifeless in the Charles River as a jolly roger in stagnant tropical air.[1] Their bodies served as a warning to sailors: “Do not turn pirate.”[2] Like many classic pirates, Quelch was an employed sailor first. His journey began as a privateer with permission from Joseph Dudley, the governor of Massachusetts.[3] Privateers were ships with special permission to attack the merchant ships of enemy nations. As a privateer, he was the first lieutenant of the Charles, and he was elected as the new captain after its original captain Daniel Plowman fell ill and tossed into the ocean.[4] Based on this mutiny, subsequent attacks on nine Portuguese ships, and other piratical behavior attested to by three of Quelch’s crew members and recorded in a journal, Quelch was condemned to hang for piracy.In 1700, the Act for the More Effectual Suppression of Piracy was passed by Parliament.[5] Pirates were becoming a major disturbance to trade. It provided guidelines for piracy trials, which were used during Quelch’s trial at the Old State House in 1704.[6] Under the 1700 Piracy Act, pirates could be tried throughout the British Empire, not just in England.[7] This act made the trial process more efficient. Quelch was the first pirate to be tried in Boston. As per the guidelines, he was tried by a commission selected by the state and not a jury.[8] A selected commission would have made it more likely for the defendants to be convicted.The 1700 Piracy Act was also the beginning of hanging as a “performance” to send a message to sailors and establish a cultural understanding of piracy and its consequences.[9] Sailors arriving in ports throughout the colony would now be greeted by the ghastly rotting bodies of seamen who turned to piracy, reminding them to stay on the straight and narrow. The Act made it possible to use violence to demonstrate the difference between piracy and legal sailing.[10]Boston Reverend Cotton Mather fully supported the 1700 Piracy Act. As a deeply religious man, he was violently opposed to all aspects of piracy, including thievery, swearing, drunkenness, killing, and obstructing trade. The hanging of John Quelch was Cotton Mather’s first opportunity to read a sermon at pirate’s execution.[11] Mather knew the power of speech and he did not waste it with his long and damning address.[12] Mather intoned, “Oh! Let the men fear the Lord Exceedingly, We Pray thee! We Pray thee! Let the Condition of the Six or Seven men, whom they now see Dying for their Wickedness upon the Sea, be Sanctified unto.”[13] Quelch’s execution launched a long struggle against piracy for Mather. In 1709, he established a campaign to return sailors to their faith.[14]The seven pirates were permitted to speak some words at their execution. Quelch declared to the ministers present, including Mather, that he was “not afraid of Death,” nor “the Gallows,” but “of what follows; [he was] afraid of a Great God, and a Judgment to Come.”[15] Quelch accepted his death eloquently, though not passively. To Quelch, death involved only his relationship with God, so he did not fear judgement from any mortal person, particularly not from Reverend Mather or the government of Massachusetts. Later, he mentioned wryly that one has to be careful of how they “bring money into New England.”[16] With this statement, he promoted the belief that he was innocently doing his duty for the colonies, not acting as an enemy of the state.—Madeline Martin ______________________________[1] Wesley Fiorentino, “Pirates in Boston: The Trial and Execution of John Quelch" Beehive. Massachusetts Historical Society. January 28, 2015. http://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2015/01/pirates-in-boston-the-trial-and-execution- of-john-quelch/.[2] Fiorentino, “Pirates in Boston”[3] Owen Stanwood, "New Histories of the Pirates." The William and Mary Quarterly 73, no. 3 (2016): 561-567. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/627305.[4] Fiorentino, “Pirates in Boston”[5] Matthew Norton, “Classification and Coercion: The Destruction of Piracy in the English Maritime System.” American Journal of Sociology 2014, 119 (6): 1537–75. doi: 10.1086/676041, 1565./[6] Norton, “Classification and Coercion,” 1569.[7] Norton, 1565.[8] Norton, 1565.[9] Norton, 1571.[10] Norton, 1570.[11] Steven J. J. Pitt, “Cotton Mather and Boston's ‘Seafaring Tribe.’” The New England Quarterly 2012. 85 (2): 222–52. Doi:23251810, 233.[12] An account of the behaviour and last dying speeches of the six pirates, that were executed on Charles River, Boston side on Fryday June 30th . Viz. Capt. John Quelch, John Lambert, Christopher Scudamore, John Miller, Erasmus Peterson and Pet. Boston, 1704. https:// www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.03303400/.[13] Pitt, “Cotton Mather,” 234.[14] Pitt, 235.[15] “Behaviour and last dying speeches.”[16] “Behaviour and last dying speeches.”Pictured: Entrance to the Copp's Hill Burial Ground, c. 1898. Detail of image depicting the gibbeting of a pirate in London from The Lives, Behavior, and Dying Words of the Most Remarkable Criminals (London, 1740).**To go Phillis Wheatley (Site 18), turn left into Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. Turn left and continue down the path. Turn left and then make another left. The destination will be straight-ahead.**
Phillis Wheatley's Gravesite
Forty-nine years after John Quelch was hanged and his body was displayed in Boston harbor, a slave ship called The Phyllis sailed through this same harbor. Aboard this ship was seven-year-old Phillis Wheatley who was sold to a wealthy Boston family in 1753. Slavery has long been regarded as one of the most notorious forms of piracy around the world, but it was also linked to classic piracy. During the Golden Age of Piracy, it wasn’t uncommon for pirates to capture slave ships and steal their valuable “cargo,” the people of African descent who were being trafficked into slavery. Not only was this “cargo” attractive to pirates, but the large physical stature of these ships was appealing to pirates, who were constantly searching for larger ships. In the world of piracy, the size of one’s ship was equivalent to the amount of fear and intimidation one could impose upon other vessels at sea. A large ship meant the probability of hand-to-hand combat was diminished, which decreased the likelihood of injury and death among pirates, and the probability of surrender was increased. There are many instances in which slave ships were hijacked by pirates, and enslaved people were even known to have joined pirate crews and have even “enjoy[ed] some of the utopian democracy” that was often a hallmark aboard pirate ships.[1]Those many enslaved Africans who did not join pirate ships faced extreme violence and abhorrent conditions during the Middle Passage, and suffered high mortality. Tragically, at least two million Africans died during their time at sea from the inhumane conditions and treatment they suffered and, in some cases, by suicide.[2] Although many associate slavery with the southern portion of the United States, Boston was a relatively popular port for slave ships, meaning that a decent number of enslaved Africans either passed through this city or were made to work here until 1783 when the Commonwealth abolished slavery. Phillis Wheatley, buried in an unmarked grave within this burial ground, was one of the many victims of the transatlantic slave trade. The trauma of the Middle Passage is most often never discussed by those who survived it, due to their unwillingness to revisit this severe emotional and physical pain. Most commonly, survivors of the journey refer to their being “brought” to a new land in an attempt to remove some of the raw emotional pain that goes along with their past experiences.[3] Wheatley writes that, “by seeming cruel fate” she “was snatch’d from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat” as opposed to directly blaming those who forced her into slavery.[4] Still, Phillis Wheatley, who hated the institution of slavery, surely connected her enslavers and the Middle Passage. Like so many other enslaved people, Phillis was given a new, more ‘Americanized’ name upon her arrival in the United States; Phillis came from the name of the ship that carried her across the Atlantic Ocean, and Wheatley was the last name of her ‘masters.’ Bearing the same name as the vessel that ripped her from her family and home in Africa meant that Wheatley was forever tied to the piracy of the Middle Passage.Unlike other slaves in the United States, Phillis received “an extraordinary education for a woman at the time, and an unprecedented one for a female slave” at the hands of the Wheatley’s daughter, Mary.[5] As an adult, Phillis was quoted as calling Susanna Wheatley her surrogate mother, but Phillis was still a black woman living in America during an increasingly contentious time between slaves and their ‘masters’. The fact that Wheatley wasn’t able to meet many other African Americans with her level of education becomes apparent within her poetry when she refers to her place of birth as a “pagan land” and thanks God for bringing “savior[s]” (or white people) to her rescue.[6] This line of thinking directly correlates with popular sentiment at the time. Many people, including Susanna Wheatley, were strong proponents of “evangelical missions” which traveled to ‘unsaved’ places, such as Africa, in an attempt to Christianize inhabitants, a practice that justified the enslavement of Africans who were deemed to be in need of salvation by white Christians.[7] Having been separated from her culture at such a young age, Wheatley had grown up knowing nothing other than the bigoted attitude that white people had surrounding race and religion. Still, it is unclear whether Phillis was brainwashed into believing that her captors had saved her soul or if she was aware of the fact that taking a strong stand against the institution of slavery would mean her work would never get published. (Indeed, it took much effort for the Wheatleys to arrange the publication of Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral [1773] in London, and it was not until the nineteenth century that Wheatley’s poems appeared in volume form in the U.S.) Although Wheatley had been considered a prodigy, her race meant that she received very few opportunities and eventually died penniless. We believe she is buried here in Copp's Hill Burying Ground in an umarked grave. Even though her final resting place is uncertain, Wheatley’s work offers a rare glimpse into the life and mind of an enslaved woman and remains a notable achievement.—Abigail Eastwood_________________________________[1] “Marcus Rediker.” NPR, NPR, www.npr.org/books/authors/138282873/marcus-rediker.[2] Digital History, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=446.[3] Barker-Benfield, G. J. Phillis Wheatley Chooses Freedom: History, Poetry, and the Ideals of the American Revolution. New York University Press, 2018.[4] Wheatley. The Writings of Phillis Wheatley. Ed. Vincent Carretta (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 40.[5] Vincent Carretta, “Introduction” in The Writings of Phillis Wheatley (New York: Oxford University Press), xiii.[6] Phillis Wheatley. The Writings of Phillis Wheatley. Ed. Vincent Carretta (Oxford University Press, 2019), 40.[7] Carretta, “Introduction,” xiii. Pictured: Phillis Wheatley. Prefatory letters attesting to Wheatley's ability by her white master and a group of prominent white male Bostonians in Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral (London, 1773). Memoir and Poems of Phillis Whealtey (Boston, 1835), the first US book that published Wheatley.**To go to Fanny Campbell (Site 19), head south down the path. Turn left and then turn left again. Take a right and then another left and the destination will be on the left.**
Fanny Campbell and Female Pirate Tales
Among the many stops on Boston’s Freedom Trail is Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, the second oldest cemetery in the city, in the North End of Boston. The location is also key in author Maturin Murray Ballou’s story of Fanny Campbell, a fictional female pirate and an important piece of American—and piratical—culture.In 1844, Ballou published Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain, a story of an adventurous young woman from Lynn, Massachusetts. Her childhood love William Lovell departs on a sailing voyage through the West Indies where his ship the Royal Kent is overtaken by pirates. The surviving members of the Kent are forced to join the pirate crew and when they desert in Cuba are arrested as pirates. Nearly two years later, Jack Herbert, one of William’s companions, escapes from prison and reports William’s condition to his parents and Fanny. Fanny, dressed as a man named Channing, meets to organize with Jack near Copp’s Hill, and then the two set sail on board the ship Constance. Knowing the British captain intends to impress his American crew into the British navy, Fanny organizes a mutiny, thus becoming a pirate captain. Fanny sails to Cuba, frees William, and confides in him her true identity. After a voyage filled with mutiny, turmoil, and riches, Fanny and William return home to Lynn and marry.[1]Before Fanny Campbell’s time were Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two of the most famous female pirates, who disguised themselves as men.[2] The real-life female pirates were likely part of the inspiration to write stories such as Ballou’s. Bonny’s and Read’s stories appeared in Captain Johnson’s 1724 General History of Pyrates, and, since one would not normally associate a woman with a pirate, a soldier, or another “male” profession, the stories caught the attention of the public.[3] While landlubbers clearly read the novel, sailors also embraced the tale. We know this because many pieces of Fanny Campbell scrimshaw, or carvings done in bone and frequently on sperm whale teeth, exist. These carvings are now worth thousands of dollars.[4] Fanny Campbell may well have been alluring because, without losing her femininity, she flaunts all conventions of her gender and becomes one of the guys. (Indeed, William is one of the very few who realizes Captain Channing is Fanny. Most characters are fully convinced Channing is male. The narrative even uses “he” and “him” pronouns for much of the novel.) Fanny Campbell’s bravery inspired some readers to follow in her footsteps, such as Sarah Emma Edmonds, who served in the Civil War as a man after reading the story.[5] Other people, including respected Boston historian Edward Rowe Snow, even came to believe Fanny was a real person. Still others have suggested her story is historical fiction.[6] That the fictional Fanny has crossed over into historical accounts as both inspiration and as fact makes clear how great her impact was and how alluring the story of a female pirate captain is.After Fanny Campbell comes countless more tales, both real and fictional, with wide societal appeal and piratical significance. In fact, the story’s popularity and impact arguably paves the way for the two most famous pirate stories of all—Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883) and Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean (2003).— Devon McCarthy_____________________________[1] Maturin Murray Ballou. Fanny Campbell, the Female Pirate Captain. Boston: Frederick Gleason, 1844.[2] Laura Lee Wren. “Anne Bonny and Mary Read: Pirate Queens.” In Pirates and Privateers of the High Seas, 51-60. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers, 2003.[3] Katherine Anderson. “Female Pirates and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century American Popular Fiction.” In Pirates and Mutineers of the Nineteenth Century: Swashbucklers and Swindlers, edited by Grace Moore, 95-115. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2011.[4] Stuart M. Frank. Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved: Scrimshaw in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Boston: David R. Godine, 2012.[5] Patricia Majher. Great Girls in Michigan History. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015.[6] Woertendyke, Gretchen J. Hemispheric Regionalism: Romance and the Geography of Genre. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pictured: Fanny Campbell: The Female Pirate Captain (Boston: F. Gleason, 1845), Scrimshaw (engraved sperm whale tooth) showing Fanny Campbell's popularity among sailors. Other scrimshaw of Fanny Campbell, likely produced by a whaler at sea between hunts. Other scrimshaw of Fanny Campbell, likely produced by a whaler at sea between hunts.**To view our About Us Page (Site 20) walk approximately 10 feet and arrive at the destination.**
About Us
We are the literary critics and historians of On the High Seas, a learning community taught by Stephen R. Berry and Lydia G. Fash, at Simmons University. Through that course, which combined pirate literature and pirate history, we authored this pirate trail. See us here, at our field trip to the USS Constitution, where we imagined how it would have been to spend months at sea. Standing, from left to right are Caitlyn Bucci, Abigail Eastwood, Jessica Sibert, Serena Rizzo, Steve Berry (behind Serena), Meridith Dantzscher, Michaela Hayes, Kat Jones, Madeline Martin, Selma Watson, Lydia Fash, Lizzy Collotta. Sitting, left to right are Christina Jang, Adrianna King, Kaili Shorey, Amanda Perry, Emma Donald, Mae Blackwell, Kirby Assaf, Autumn West, Devon McCarthyOur thanks to Courtney Lombard, Simmons alumna (2019), for her work putting together this site, and to Dean Brian Norman and Associate Dean Denise Horn for supporting this project.
