Résumé
Résumé de Les pirates de la côte de la Nouvelle-Angleterre (1630–1730)
Go deeper: the whole of Les pirates de la côte de la Nouvelle-Angleterre (1630–1730)
About 9 h 10 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who like true sea stories, colonial New England, court records and trial scenes, or the real people behind the pirate legend.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Why would a sailor choose a life that ends on a gallows? The sayings of the sea answer it. Hard ships make hard men, and there is no law off soundings. For a seaman with poor food, low pay and a harsh captain, a black flag could look like a way out.
The Pirates of the New England Coast covers the years 1630 to 1730. George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds built it from court records, trial pamphlets, sermons and old newspapers. You meet Dixey Bull, William Kidd, John Quelch, Ned Low and Philip Ashton, a young fisherman who survives alone on an island.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Hard seas and poor pay breed piratesFree
- 2Privateers and buccaneers train the later pirates
- 3Trade laws make smugglers friends of pirates
- 4The first pirates and the first laws
- 5A Dutch pilot and a frigate's pilot turn pirate
- 6Kidd and Tew show how thin the line was
- 7Quelch hangs for gold taken from Portuguese ships
- 8Bellamy's ship breaks up on Cape Cod
- 9Ned Low rules the sea and Ashton escapes him
- 10Harris, Phillips and Fly, and the pirates' world
Point clé 1 sur 10
Hard seas and poor pay breed pirates
Why did men go on the account, as pirates called it? Sailors gave plain answers in old sea sayings. They spoke of hard work, low pay, bad food and cruel commanders. A seaman before the mast was little better than a slave.
Captain John Smith saw the pattern in 1630. Wherever seas are busy, he wrote, pirates will gather. Peace left the navy with little work, and by 1618 there were ten times as many pirates as in the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth. Ordinary seamen earned ten shillings a month.
Smith urged merchants to pay fair wages on time, because need drives men to steal. Piracy grew wherever honest work for sailors ran short.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Questions about Les pirates de la côte de la Nouvelle-Angleterre (1630–1730)
What is The Pirates of the New England Coast about?
It tells the story of piracy off New England from 1630 to 1730. It follows named pirates such as Dixey Bull, William Kidd, John Quelch, Samuel Bellamy and Ned Low, and shows how colonial courts and merchants dealt with them.
Is The Pirates of the New England Coast a true story?
Yes, it is history, not fiction. The authors drew on state archives, Admiralty court records, trial pamphlets, sermons and newspapers, and checked Captain Charles Johnson's account of pirates against the original documents.
Who was Ned Low?
Ned Low was an English-born ship rigger who lived in Boston before becoming a pirate captain in 1722. He raided fishing fleets and ships from Newfoundland to the Caribbean, and he is remembered for his cruelty to New Englanders.
Who was Philip Ashton?
Philip Ashton was a young fisherman from Marblehead taken by Low in 1722. He escaped on the island of Roatan and lived alone for months before being rescued. His own narrative is reprinted in the book.
What is the main message of the book?
Piracy grew out of hard sea life, wartime privateering, trade laws and colonial profit. The book shows that pirates, merchants and officials were often closely connected, and that the courts hanged many men while others were pardoned.
Cite this edition
Dow, George Francis, and John Henry Edmonds. The Pirates of the New England Coast (1630–1730). Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-pirates-of-the-new-england-coast-1630-1730.
Dow, G. F., & Edmonds, J. H. (2026). The pirates of the New England coast (1630–1730). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-pirates-of-the-new-england-coast-1630-1730 (Original work published 1923)
Dow, George Francis, and John Henry Edmonds. The Pirates of the New England Coast (1630–1730). Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-pirates-of-the-new-england-coast-1630-1730.
@book{dow2026pirates,
author = {Dow, George Francis and Edmonds, John Henry},
title = {The Pirates of the New England Coast (1630–1730)},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-pirates-of-the-new-england-coast-1630-1730},
note = {First published 1923}
}
