"Decried and abominated in every place": Space, power and piracy, c.1680-1730

Hasty, William (2012) "Decried and abominated in every place": Space, power and piracy, c.1680-1730. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis examines the historical geographies of piracy from around 1680 to 1730, a period in which the relations between pirates and the state changed dramatically. More specifically, the thesis aims to employ a distinctively geographical lens in the study of aspects of piratical and anti-piratical agency, focusing on four particular spatialities. Firstly, the thesis seeks to reanimate the pirate, to study their world through movement and mobilities, both real and imagined, to show how these mattered for the way pirates were rationalised by the state, and how their actual movements differed from those encoded in the notion of the ‘roving’ pirate. Secondly, this thesis shows how questions of space, power and politics played out aboard the pirate ship, attending specifically to certain spatial practices apparent among many pirates, whereby this thesis considers critically the extent to which politics was entangled with space in the life of the pirate afloat. Thirdly, it is suggested that the ‘mercantilist discourse’ that framed piracy as an existential threat to the development of the early-modern state and the accompanying changes to the institutional architecture and everyday practices of the state were underpinned by hitherto neglected geographies of power and representation. Finally, this thesis explores the dark and disturbing geographies of punishment visited upon the bodies of captured pirates. The prison, the gallows and the gibbet are shown to have been important sites in the move towards the social exclusion of the pirate, and it argued that this process of ‘othering’ was permeated with a distinctively geographical logic. These cuts each suggest new perspectives on the story of piracy and the ‘salt-water state’ in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth century, foregrounding important patterns, practices and processes that gave distinctive shape to the lives, deaths and legacies of pirates.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Due to copyright restrictions the full text of this thesis cannot be made available online. Access to the printed version is available.
• Keywords: Pirates and piracy, ships, historical geography, maritime history, early-modern, imperialism, eighteenth century
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform; G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General); D History General and Old World > D History (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Supervisor's Name: Philo, Prof. Chris
• Date of Award: 2012
• Depositing User: Mr William Hasty
• Unique ID: glathesis:2012-3773
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 09 Jan 2013 13:49
• Last Modified: 10 Jan 2013 14:12
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/3773