CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Mcdaniel, Maxwell |
|---|---|
| Title | Republic of the Black Flag: A Microhistory on Legal Pluralism during the Golden Age of Piracy 1712-1722 |
| Summary | The purpose of this essay is to show how legal pluralism negatively affect the British Empire by creating competing jurisdictions that both weakened centralized rule and strengthened local colonial administrators. To illustrate this point the author uses pirates active in the Caribbean Sea from 1712-1722 as a tool to highlight the deficiencies of the imperial legal system during this time period. A significant amount of attention is allocated to analyzing the “Flying Gang” otherwise known as the “Pirate Republic of Nassau” and how this community of pirates navigated the legal labyrinth of the British Empire for its own benefit. This paper also focuses on the inability of certain colonial governors to properly act in defense of the empire due to the lack of legal power afforded to them. By engaging in a microhistory of a select group of historical actors the author is able to show the factors, laws, and institutions which allowed piracy to flourish. |
| Supervisor | Esmer, Tolga |
| Department | Historical Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/mcdaniel_max.pdf |
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