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License to plunder: The role of pirates in the American Revolution

Pirates typically conjure images of legendary buried treasure, chatty parrots on shoulders and creaky wooden ships sailing under menacing black flags.

The reality of piracy in colonial America was far more complicated. Pirates often walked openly through port cities, selling stolen cargo and even enjoying the protection of the very officials who were supposed to arrest them.

The distinction between criminal and government agent was murky, but the legal difference came down to a piece of paper.

By definition, a pirate committed theft, violence or pillaging on the water without government authorization. A privateer might perform many of the same acts, but with state backing through a letter of marque — essentially a license allowing a private sailor to attack enemy ships and disrupt trade during times of war.

Those licenses came with rules and strict expiration dates. Once the government's permission ended, a sailor who continued the same activities could suddenly find himself on the wrong side of the law.

“The line between privateer and pirate was fluid, where pirates could become privateers and vice versa, depending on whether their actions were sanctioned by the state at that time or not,” said Holly Vlach, a PhD candidate in Auburn University’s Department of History studying piracy and maritime history in early America.

In the 1690s, British governors in the colonies were expected to enforce maritime law and crack down on piracy. Some instead allowed pirates to frequent their ports and become part of colonial economic and social life.

There were practical reasons to look the other way. Pirates brought money and goods into colonial economies, and their presence could discourage rival pirate crews from attacking the same harbors.

“It was a great defensive strategy in that other pirates would think twice about attacking a harbor if they knew the odds of running into another pirate crew were already high,” Vlach said.

Some pirates even developed relationships with the political and social elite.

William Kidd, who operated at different points as both a privateer and pirate, contributed significant funds toward the construction of Trinity Church in Manhattan and moved within the social circles of Benjamin Fletcher, then governor of New York. His wife, Sarah Bradley Kidd, helped develop and protect those relationships with powerful families.

“By maintaining her friendship with Fletcher’s daughter, attending church regularly and maintaining her elite social status, she managed to rehabilitate Kidd’s reputation and image,” Vlach said.

These relationships showed that British maritime law was not always enforced neatly in the colonies. When local interests and the demands of the Crown conflicted, some colonial officials were willing to bend the rules.

Decades later, when the colonies went to war with Britain, private maritime activity took on a new significance.

When the Continental Congress established the Continental Navy in 1775 with just two merchant vessels purchased and outfitted for war, the Americans faced a daunting imbalance.

“The Continental Navy was really a ragtag group going up against the strongest navy in the world at that point, so their goals were not to engage in large-scale dramatic maritime combat unless absolutely necessary,” Vlach said.

Instead, American vessels targeted British supply lines and forced the Royal Navy to devote resources to protecting the network carrying its own troops, weapons and supplies. But with such a small navy, the revolutionary government needed help.

The Continental Congress issued around 2,000 letters of marque, authorizing private citizens to join the fight. Rather than relying on a government fleet alone, the Americans could now enlist privately owned ships to attack British commerce and interfere with the war effort.

Together, privateers and the Continental Navy captured British vessels, disrupted trade and helped inflict more than $18 million in economic damage, making Britain's command of the seas increasingly costly and difficult to maintain.

For generations, the line between pirate and privateer had shifted with politics and war. During the American Revolution, privateering became a powerful wartime strategy, giving the fledgling nation another way to challenge the world's greatest naval power. By disrupting British trade and supply lines, privateers helped stretch British resources and keep pressure on the empire far beyond the Revolution's battlefields.

Learn more about America250 at Auburn University.

Tags: Faculty History