4 - Boston, Logwood, and the Rise and Decline of the Pirates, 1713 to 1728

Summary

Abstract After the end of Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), the economic fate of Atlantic seafarers and colonial Boston hinged on an unlikely commodity— logwood. This dyewood from the Spanish-claimed Yucatan Peninsula provided a haven from depressed wages and unemployment for seafarers and bankruptcy for Boston merchants. The growing British presence in the Bay of Campeche angered Spanish authorities who considered them pirates. In late 1716, the Spanish attacked, permanently ending that branch of the logwood trade. This act unleashed a decade of piracy, as the hundreds of seafarers and loggers engaged in the trade sought new avenues to riches. Reprieve from this onslaught only came when highly motivated Bostonians re-established the logwood trade in the Bay of Honduras in the mid-1720s.

Keywords: New England; London; Belize; Baymen; Edward Low; Blackbeard; Sam Bellamy

Historians point to 1716 as the pivotal year when pirates irrupted from the belly of the Atlantic to devour the shipping of “civilised” nations. This irruption has often been attributed to the end of Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) and the subsequent unemployment, wage reductions, and mistreatment of seafarers. Recently, historians have identified two other important reasons for this rise in piracy. Mark Hanna argues that colonial emphasis on cash crops such as sugar and tobacco reduced the need for pirate silver and gold, as well as required stable, predictable trade routes. New imperial laws and institutions turned “Pirate Nests” in the West Indies and North America away from harbouring and trading with pirates. David Wilson, meanwhile, contends that historians have neglected to examine the impact of continuing conflict with Spanish guardacostas in disputed territories like the coast of Florida and the Laguna de Terminos. According to Wilson, Spanish depredations in these locations greatly impacted Jamaica's shipping and economy, which “displaced a sizeable seafaring population and encouraged their turn to piracy.” These important arguments add more nuance to our understanding of the rise in piracy in the aftermath of Queen Anne's War, and in the case of Wilson, hints at a major underlying cause. Historians, however, have failed to recognise the importance of colonial Boston and the Atlantic logwood trade in producing the conditions necessary for the dramatic upsurge of piracy in 1716, as well as its decline in the mid-1720s.