Welcome to the Pirate Republic—the early-eighteenth-century home to some of the great pirate captains, including Blackbeard, "Black Sam" Bellamy, and Charles Vane. Along with their fellow pirates—former sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves—this "Flying Gang" established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.

For a brief, glorious period the Pirate Republic was enormously successful. It cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, and severed Europe from its New World empires. Imperial authorities and wealthy shipowners denouncedits residentsas the enemies of mankind, but common people saw them as heroes. Colin Woodard tells the dramatic untold story of the Pirate Republic that shook the very foundations of the British and Spanish Empires and fanned the democratic sentiments that would one day drive the American Revolution. In the early eighteenth century a number of the great pirate captains joined forces, including Blackbeard, Black Sam Bellamy, and Charles Vane. This infamous "Flying Gang" was more than simply a band of thieves: Many of its members were sailors, indentured servants, and runaway slaves who turned to piracy as a revolt against the conditions they suffered on ships and plantations. Together they established a crude but distinctive democracy in the Bahamas, carving out their own zone of freedom in which servants were free, blacks could be equal citizens, and leaders were chosen or deposed by a vote.

For a brief, glorious period the pirate republic was enormously successful. At its height it cut off trade routes, sacked slave ships, and severed Britain, France, and Spain from their New World empires. The Royal Navy went from being unable to catch the pirates to being afraid to encounter them at all. Imperial authorities and wealthy shipowners denounced the pirates as the enemies of mankind, but huge numbers of common people saw them as heroes. Finally one man volunteered to pacify the pirate’s Bahaman lair and destroy any who resisted -- Woodes Rogers, a famous privateer himself and scion of a powerful merchant family.

Drawing on extensive research in the archives of Britain and the Americas, Colin Woodard tells the dramatic untold story of the Pirate Republic that shook the very foundations of the British and Spanish Empires and fanned the democratic sentiments that would one day drive the American revolution.

屢獲殊榮的新聞記者兼暢銷書作傢。著有《美國民族：北美十一個競爭區域文化的曆史》(American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America )、《天涯海角：行過正在消失的海洋》(Ocean’s End: Travels Through Endangered Seas)，以及《龍蝦海岸：造反者、遠離塵囂者，以及被遺忘的新天地掙紮》(The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier)。曾長期擔任《舊金山紀事報》和《基督科學箴言報》外國通訊記者，視野遍及七大洲、五十五國，並定期為《華盛頓郵報》《華盛頓月刊》和《政治》撰文。畢業於塔夫茨大學和芝加哥大學。目前與傢人居於緬因州，擔任《波特蘭新聞先驅報》美國國傢與國際事務記者。

譯者簡介：

許恬寜，颱灣大學外文係畢業，專職譯者，譯有《告密者：Olympus前執行長捨命揭露20年假賬的故事》、《抉擇：希拉裏迴憶錄》（閤譯）、《徵服者：弓馬梟雄》、《徵服者：白骨之丘》等書。