Pirates & Privateers: Angela C. Sutton's Books

History is required in school, but during my youth at least, my teachers didn’t always show how what happened one place was connected with or impacted events happening elsewhere. My research into pirates and the past has taught me that these interconnections do exist. More and more, books that come across my desk strive to show this bigger, often global picture. Pirates of the Slave Trade is one such book.

At first glance, readers may wonder what was the Battle of Cape Lopez. Those familiar with pirate history know of it but more because of what happened at this fight than by its name. It took place off the coast of West Africa on 10 February 1722. The outcome brought about the demise of one of the most prolific pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy, Bartholomew Roberts. The subsequent trials at Cape Coast Castle led to mass hangings of fifty-two pirates. Captain Chaloner Ogle of the British Royal Navy would be honored with knighthood. Piracy began to wane, whereas the buying and selling of slaves increased in scope and intensity. In turn, this led to changes in how Europeans viewed Africans and how Britain and her colonies, especially in what would become the United States, characterized those who were enslaved.

This is, in essence, what Pirates of the Slave Trade is about, but Sutton touches on many peripheral topics related to piracy and slavery. After setting the scene and introducing the main characters, she examines what drew Roberts and his men to Africa. He was neither a stranger to the slave trade – his sailing career started aboard slave ships – nor unknown when he returned to African waters in 1722. (He was already a notorious pirate, having captured more than 400 vessels and murdered a governor.) Captain Ogle, on the other hand, was a pirate hunter, a man determined to end Roberts’s depredations and he possessed the authority to do whatever it took to accomplish the pirates’ eradication.

Sutton also introduces a third man to this equation: John Conny, an Ahantan king who learned the ins and outs of European slave trading operations firsthand and used them to his advantage in what is now Ghana. As he grew more influential and powerful, he sheltered pirates and made it possible for them to prey on ships of the various West India companies in African waters.

The book is divided into two parts. “The Battle of Cape Lopez” identifies principal players and establishes the parameters that lead to the final confrontation between the Royal Navy and the pirates. “The Birth of an American Institution” delves into the battle’s legacy, asking and seeking answers to:

Who were the real gentlemen of fortune here?
And who are they today?
Who benefits from global extraction-based exploitative processes that change the face of the entire world?
And who among us (“us” meaning the national as well as the global population) are left behind? (143-144)

Maps, artwork, and tables accompany the narrative. Footnotes provide additional information on topics mentioned in the text, while endnotes provide citations to source material consulted. There is an index, but no bibliography.

Sutton deftly lays the groundwork on the slave trade and slavery, piracy in Africa, and the people and places involved to orient the reader in the primary purpose of this book. She discusses the trading companies to a fuller degree than is often covered in history volumes. Readers gain a better understanding of before and after, especially as regards slavery in America. She skillfully shows how one incident leads to another and another, showing their interconnectedness and the resultant outcomes. In addition, she utilizes the words and deeds of William Snelgrave, a captain engaged in the slave trade who also became a captive of three pirates, to graphically depict the before and after changes.

Many authors writing books about pirates and their connections to slavery tend to gloss over the details, preferring to mention rather than elucidate. Sutton dares to venture much further into what is a provocative and sometimes incendiary discussion; she does so “with an antiracist lens.” (238) She explains why and lets readers know that they can effect change – a fact that resonates today. Pirates of the Slave Trade is enlightening, thought-provoking, and a must read for anyone who wants a fuller picture of the connections between piracy, the slave trade, and the legacy the downfall of one created for the other.