Colin Woodard
The Republic of Pirates is a history of the greatest pirate gang in history, the one that's responsible for 90 percent of today's pop culture pirate iconography. I went back to the archives to rebuild the story of Blackbeard and his colleagues, separating fact from fiction, which wound up being a great deal of fun because the real story was stranger and more interesting than the mythical one. The book was just released in the United Kingdom by Pan Macmillan, but came out in 2007 on this side of the Atlantic.
How much has you background as a journalist prepared you for book writing?
I've always been a scholar-journalist, trying to bring historical or scientific context to my reporting and an eye to present day implications and narrative structure to the study of historical events. It's a very effective cross-pollination that I think can enhance either profession.
You have won many awards for your work, so how does it feel to have your writing so publicly appreciated?
It's wonderful to have one's work recognized, of course, and doubly-so on the journalism front. A couple of years ago, after a globe-trotting career, I became a staffer at my home state's largest newspaper, and that's where and when I won that George Polk Award, which was a pretty nice "homecoming" gift. In many ways, doing investigative and long form journalism at the local level can have the greatest impact, as the public and policy worlds are far more likely to take action.
How did you feel when you found out the book was going to be made into a TV show?
The story had always struck me as having a cinematic quality that would lend itself well to an extended series. Of course, the odds of it actually happening are always vanishingly small, so it was a wonderful surprise when it became clear that the show really would be going forward. When you're actually experiencing it, there are many, many sets of hurdles, so you spend so many months and years in a state of guarded anticipation that it's actually stressful and exhilarating in equal parts.
Please tell us about your research process into the time period?
It was something of an archival treasure hunt. I read every secondary account of the pirates out there, identifying the sources of each fact and event and entering them into huge chronological spreadsheets, one for each pirate or major historical theme. I then tracked down every source document -- trial transcripts, depositions from the pirates' victims, official papers of colonial governors and imperial officials, genealogical records, period books and newspapers, and letters of various witnesses and citizens -- which raised more questions. I was then able to identify - often by triangulation - where new material might be found, much of it in the National Archives at Kew, including previously overlooked accounts of naval captains and details in the customs logs of colonial ports. And there was a lot of contextual reading, of course: the anatomy of the 1715 Jacobite uprising, the architecture of early 18th century Anglo-Colonial settlements, or the practices of slave traders and plantation owners.
Please tell us about Blackbeard and Black Sam.
Blackbeard was a strategic thinker, always planning his moves far ahead. For instance, he carefully cultivated an image of terror, wearing lighted fuses in his beard when in combat, so as to scare opponents into surrendering without firing a shot; this was ideal, as it eliminated the danger of damage to his own ship, cargo, and crew, and those of the other vessel, the source of new willing pirate recruits, spare parts, and valuables. Sam Bellamy was much younger, a self-styled Robin Hood who saw himself as settling scores with a tyrannical ruling class; he was enormously successful, but his career was cut short by a terrible, fatal storm off Cape Cod.
When did you passion for pirates begin?
The U.S. is a historically amnesiatic country, and I've long believed that many of our current divisions can only be understood via the colonial era, which few Americans really know anything about. I originally intended to use the pirates as a vehicle to draw a wide audience into this peculiar and revealing era. But then I discovered the pirates' own story was entirely unexpected, so that's when I was truly hooked.
What is next for you?
I've written another book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, which unpacks the relevance of the colonial period directly, showing how differences between rival colonial projects in North America are reflected in today's political divisions and geography. I'm at work on another that's something of a follow-up to that. But I'm always on the lookout for new information on the Golden Age pirates -- more answers are out there.