Biographies
Introduction
There is one book which is a lot responsible for the image we have nowadays of a pirate. As it is a case with a lot of writings from the eighteenth century, the title is quite long : « A general and true history of the lives and actions of the most famous highwaymen, murderers, street-robbers, &c. ». This text is a collection of biographies published in 1724 and signed by a certain Captain Charles Johnson. Who is the author of this book is subject to controversy. For a lot of specialists, this captain is only a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe, a famous British author who lived and wrote during the Golden Age of piracy. The author is mostly know to be the writer of « Robinson Crusoe », a fiction. For this reason, the biographies need to be analysed with caution because some elements may have been romanced. The book contains detailed descriptions of the life of more than hundred pirates and robbers of any kind. Informations about quite anonymous ones and about pirates of legends like Blackbeard can be found
When most of us try to picture ourselves the pirate flag, we see a white skull above crossed swords on a black background. But this isn’t its only design, in fact, each major pirates had his own. Blackbeard for instance had a really interesting flag with a devil like figure pointing an arrow at a heart. The name
One of the first representations of the jolly roger
Charles Johnson, Source N Jolly Roger finds its origin in the book written by Daniel Defoe. Since it has been written during the eighteenth century, it is likely that the word was quite common and not only used by this author. This quite simple symbol in appearance can teach us a lot about who the pirate sailing under it was. Even if most of them share a similar pattern, they are quite different in the end. This flag was like a warning to other ships, when they saw it, they knew that they were in a dangerous position.
How the pirates are