Hoist the Colors
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- As 14th century historian Ibn Khaldun observed, this is a perennial conflict. With time, he suggests, civilization grows decadent, only to be conquered by a new zeitgeist or social group from the periphery.
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The frontier bestows power to those who conquer it.
- The caricatures of peg-legs, eye-patches, and savagery are unimportant; what is truly valuable is their spirit.
- We pretend that weâre the esteemed evolution of Greco-Roman tradition, yet in reality the West is the progeny of outcasts.
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Like us, the pirates held a diverse set of goals; among them anarchy, peace, or simply riches befitting a king. Critically, at the center of these ambitions lay a simple truthâone outlined in the mirage of Libertalia. Not all treasure is silver and gold. To be free is to be capable of anything.
Hoist the Colors
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Highlights
- The apocryphal Libertalia, a pirate den believed to be the Madagascan anchorage of Avery himself, depicted this aspiration for something greater. A place where, according to legend, âevery man was born free, and had as much right to what would support him, as to the air he respiredâ. Composed of men said to be âvigilant guardians of the people’s rights and libertiesâ, standing steadfast as âbarriers against the rich and powerfulâ. While Libertalia was fiction, those inspired would seek to make it reality.
- This gold rush brought people of all kinds, yet their shared experiences bound them. Nassau blossomed into a thriving community of societal outcasts. Beyond dejected sailors, crews were made up of escaped slaves, runaway indentured servants, and otherwise downtrodden members of society. To them, piracy was both an opportunity for a better life and revenge against the elite who had tormented them for generations.
- And what is that spirit? As Khaldun would note, history is riddled with it. Before casting stones, recognize that the Western world itself stems in large part from barbarians, heretics, and slaves.