The ArchivesThemesRecruitment: Volunteers and Forced Men
Recruitment: Volunteers and Forced Men
How pirate companies of about 1690 to 1725 filled their berths, drawing volunteers from a glutted maritime labour market of merchant seamen, naval hands and out-of-work privateersmen, and taking skilled tradesmen by force out of prizes.
Also writtenVolunteers and forced men; Going on the account (period usage for joining a pirate company); Forcing (the compulsory recruitment of captives out of prizes); The forced man (the legal category and the defence built on it); Pirate manning and crew composition
A pirate company filled its berths from two streams. The larger was volunteers, poor and mostly young seamen out of the merchant service, the navy and the privateering trade, who signed for a share of plunder. The smaller was forced men, above all tradesmen whose skills a company could not do without and could not hire. This record holds the labour side: where the men came from, and how a company recruited at a taking.
Where the men came from
Marcus Rediker, reading the records of Anglo-American pirates of about 1716 to 1726, found that of 157 men whose earlier employment is recorded, 155 had come from the merchant service, the Royal Navy or privateering, and 144 from the merchant service alone. Probably fewer than five in a hundred began as shipboard mutineers. Piracy on that sample recruited from the men who worked lawful ships.1
Peace made the supply. The close of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 and 1714 turned privateersmen and naval seamen out of paid employment into a merchant service already glutted, where wages fell and cramped provisioning, brutal punishment and the threat of impressment waited instead. Those conditions produced recruits for unlawful ships from the men who worked lawful ones, and the authorities treated the crossing over as a contagion in the workforce.2
The moment of joining
Volunteers typically joined at a taking. A prize was boarded, her company mustered, and the men offered the pirates' articles. Signing the articles made a man a member of the company with a share of plunder. Some agreed outright, some were talked round over drink, and some joined once their own ship and its discipline were behind them. Companies preferred men with nothing ashore: crews are recorded refusing a married man, on the reasoning that ties at home invited desertion, and only 23 of 521 pirates in Rediker's sample are known to have been married.3
Forcing as a manning problem
Forcing worked on the same occasion and answered a different need. A company at sea could not advertise a vacancy, so when it lost its carpenter or surgeon it detained the next one it found in a prize. The men taken were the scarce trades: carpenters, surgeons, coopers, caulkers and sailmakers, and sometimes musicians. A forced man could be made to sign the articles under duress, which left him holding a document that said the opposite of his account. The methods used to get that signature are set out under violence and coercion.4
The public notice
Men who got clear of a pirate company had reason to put their own account on record before anyone else did, since being forced was a defence to a capital charge. A recognised practice was for released or escaped captives to place public notices declaring that they had been taken against their will, so as to protect themselves from later prosecution.5
Two courts
In the autumn of 1718 trials before Judge Nicholas Trott at Charles Town tried 58 people and acquitted 9, counting Stede Bonnet's company and the separate company associated with Richard Worley together; twenty-nine of Bonnet's men were condemned and four acquitted, and Bonnet himself was hanged on 10 December 1718. The proceedings were printed in London the next year as The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet and Other Pirates, with the men's own accounts of how they came aboard.6
Captives of Edward Low's company around 1723 give the pattern at the level of named men. William Phillips said the pirates had threatened to blow his brains out; shipmates supported him, and he was convicted anyway and pardoned only later. William White, who said he had been drunk when he joined, was convicted and hanged. The two outcomes stand together: forcing was real, and courts frequently declined to credit it.7
Where the categories stop
Neither stream describes what happened to men of African descent taken with pirate companies. Roughly seventy such men were taken with Roberts's crews in 1722 and were largely not tried, being treated as property. Volunteering and forcing were categories available to men whom the law recognised as persons. The counts, the disposals and the Cape Coast arithmetic sit under race, empire and maritime labour and the slave trade nexus.
The 1724 General History of the Pyrates dramatises recruitment scenes and reproduces sets of articles; its dialogue and its particulars are Johnson's own. Two popular pictures are wrong in opposite directions: piracy as a brotherhood of willing rebels, which leaves out the coercion of skilled men, and the courtroom view that nearly every man claiming force was lying, which leaves out how common forcing was.
The volunteer and the forced man are a real legal distinction that cannot be verified for most individuals, because the only surviving statement of how a man came aboard is usually his own, made under threat of hanging. Every proportion here comes from partial samples of depositions and musters, and the printed Charles Town summaries do not show which of the acquittals there turned on a plea of force. What would settle it is a collation of the printed proceedings, the 1719 Bonnet trials, the Low trials of 1723 and the Cape Coast trial record of 1722, against the admiralty and Colonial Office papers, with a pooled demographic study larger than any yet made.
What the evidence does not settle
Volunteer or forced status
- Whether a man volunteered or was forced is often unverifiable
Cape Coast Castle 1722 trial totals
- Reported totals for the 1722 trial differ between accounts
Charleston 1718 trials
- Whether any Charleston 1718 acquittal rested on a force plea is unclear
Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.
Sources for this record
Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.
- In the one systematic count of pirate origins, drawn from surviving trial depositions of Anglo-American pirates of about 1716 to 1726, of 157 men whose earlier employment is recorded 155 had come from the merchant service, the Royal Navy or privateering and 144 from the merchant service alone, with probably fewer than five per cent originating as shipboard mutineers. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Modern social history resting on trial depositions: Marcus Rediker, "Under the Banner of King Death: The Social World of Anglo-American Pirates, 1716 to 1726", William and Mary Quarterly, 1981
- The supply of recruits was made by the maritime labour market, the close of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713 and 1714 turning large numbers of privateersmen and naval seamen out of paid employment into an already glutted merchant service marked by falling wages, cramped provisioning, brutal punishment and the standing threat of naval impressment. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern social history: Marcus Rediker, "Under the Banner of King Death", 1981; Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age, 2004
- Volunteers were recruited at the taking of a prize, where the captured company was offered the pirates' articles and signing the articles made a man a member with a share, and companies preferred unattached men, crews being recorded as refusing to take a married man on the reasoning that ties ashore invited desertion, with only 23 of 521 sampled pirates known to have been married. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Modern social history resting on trial depositions: Marcus Rediker, "Under the Banner of King Death", 1981; A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, 1724, attributed to Captain Charles Johnson, for the recruitment scenes
- Forcing was the compulsory recruitment of captives out of prizes and fell chiefly on skilled tradesmen, carpenters, surgeons, coopers, caulkers, sailmakers and sometimes musicians, because those trades were scarce and a company at sea could not replace them by hire; a forced man might be made to sign the articles under duress, which complicated any later claim that he had never consented. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Public history synthesis of trial records, with period narrative: "The Peril of Pirate Captives in Colonial America", We're History; A General History of the Pyrates, 1724; A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
- Because being forced was a defence to a capital charge, a recognised practice grew up of released or escaped captives placing public notices declaring that they had been taken against their will, so as to guard themselves against later prosecution. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Public history synthesis of trial records: "The Peril of Pirate Captives in Colonial America", We're History
- The Charles Town trials of the autumn of 1718, held before Judge Nicholas Trott, tried 58 people and acquitted 9 across Stede Bonnet's company and the separate company associated with Richard Worley, the printed Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet naming twenty-nine of Bonnet's men condemned and four acquitted beside Bonnet himself, who was hanged on 10 December 1718; the printed proceedings, London 1719, preserve the men's own accounts of how they came aboard, though the surviving summaries do not show which acquittals turned on a plea of force. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Trial pamphlet and institutional public history: The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet and Other Pirates, Court of Vice-Admiralty, Charleston, printed for Benjamin Cowse, London 1719; Nicholas Butler, "The Charleston Pirate Trials of 1718", Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library
- Captives of Edward Low's company around 1723 testified to having been seized under threat, William Phillips saying the pirates had threatened to blow his brains out and being convicted despite corroboration by shipmates before a later pardon, while William White, who said he had been drunk when he joined, was convicted and hanged, showing both that forcing was real and that the courts frequently refused to credit it. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Public history synthesis of trial records: "The Peril of Pirate Captives in Colonial America", We're History