The Pirate History Podcast

Today we continue our look at New England. Puritan divisions, Indigenous politics, war, finally culminating in the tale of the first New England pirate: Dixey Bull.

In the midst of the delirium tremens, the Captain tells more than he intends about the contents of his sea chest and his memory. Then we meet yet another old pirate, who delivers to the captain the dreaded Black Spot. Music: The Buccaneer's Haul by Shane Ivers - www.silvermansound.com

We're taking a very broad look at the arrival of Europeans into the North American world from about 1500 to 1630. From Newfoundland to New France, Carolina to New Netherland, and finally New England.

Black Dogs, in English mythology, have long symbolized death, traditionally at the gallows. In chapter two of Treasure Island we meet the eponymous pirate Black Dog. Music: The Buccaneer's Haul by Shane Ivers - www.silvermansound.com

Given the situation in which we all find ourselves, I've decided to try to add more audio content in the form of classic pirate audio books. Enjoy Treasure Island, chapter 1, The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow. Stay safe, be well, & look out for each other. Music: The Buccaneer's Haul by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

This is the conclusion of the drama on the Chesapeake. Richard Ingle, William Claiborne, Leonard Calvert, and Thomas Cornwaleys all converge in a bout of pillage and violence in 1644 known as The Plundering Time.

The English Civil War arrived in America when a trader named Richard Ingle was accused of Parliamentarian sympathies. Today's drama will set off the first wave of piracy in English North America - a period known as The Plundering Time.

The fighting on the Chesapeake exploded in the 1630s between Virginia and Maryland. The trading post on Kent Island was under siege, but a series of small successes attracted more and more sailors until Kent Island looked very much like a pirate haven.

Jamestown, Virginia was growing into a viable colony when another party entered the American Colonial world. A formidable Catholic family moved in on the northeast coast of Chesapeake Bay, igniting a fight that would erupt in a scourge of piracy.

This is the story of the first act of piracy in the North American English colonies. But really it's a story of rich, greedy, prideful, selfish, downright evil men. And the evil men aren't the pirates. And Christopher Newport, but he's cool.

This is the story of Sir Christopher Newport & John Smith and the colony at Jamestown. Smith is often lauded as the driving force behind the first successful English colony in the New World, but he was little more than a con man. It's a very opinionated episode.

The colony at Roanoke has long been an integral part of American Mythology, and the mystery of the Lost Colony has fascinated people for centuries. But should it? Today we talk about Roanoke's lost colonists, and the pirates that led to their disappearance.

It's time we discussed the colonization of North America. The Nine Years War will introduce the world to pirates from New York, Boston, and Providence that will shape our story. However, North America's story is replete with pirates from the very beginning.

We're discussing the outbreak of the Nine Years War. The Huguenot population were pushed into exile, many to England, where they fed into the anti-Catholic, anti-Stuart movement. William III taking the English throne changed the dynamics drastically and what was supposed to be a quick war turned into something much bigger.

In the 1670s King Louis XIV was the most powerful Monarch in world. France stood atop the cultural and military pyramid of Europe, but the cracks were beginning to show. The decline of France and her King began when one beautiful, dangerous woman introduced nefarious elements into the court.