Book Feature: The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet
Today’s book feature is a nonfiction title about an unlikely pirate who sailed the Atlantic from Barbados to Boston in the early 18th century. Written by Jeremy R. Moss, The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet examines the life of a wealthy plantation owner living in Barbados who gave up his plantation, left his family, and, buying his own ship and crew, became a pirate. Using a variety of primary source documents, Moss carefully examines both the daily actions of Bonnet and the historical context in which he lived. Written chronologically, the book follows Bonnet through his successes and failures as a pirate while providing readers a look at pirating as it really was, not as it often portrayed through fictional tropes of peg legs, parrots, and eye patches. Included in the nonfiction narrative, are the complete transcripts of Bonnet’s trial which took place after his surrender and capture in 1718. The book also includes an appendices with primary source accounts from those who knew and sailed Bonnet as well as other valuable documents and information. Beautifully designed and formatted, The Life and Tryals of the Gentlemen Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet by Jeremy Ross offers a valuable resource into the intriguing life of into the strange but true account of a gentlemen pirate.
Notable Quotes
By the end of 1716, the twenty-eight-year-old Bonnet had enough of the good life and its related discontents. Bonnet was struck with a “humor of going pirating.”
Pausing on the deck of the Revenge, Bonnet would have closed his eyes and taken in the smell of the sea, sweat and gunpowder, feeling the warm Floridian sun upon his face. Bonnet was a long way from his estate in Barbados, and at that moment he would not have wanted to be anywhere else.
Bonnet and Blackbeard were not in search of Spanish ships, but were instead in search of English prizes. With their new flagship, the pirates were ready to show off to the world who ruled the seas of the Western Hemisphere.
In just over a year, and despite his inadequacies at sea, Bonnet’s status had elevated among the most famous captains of the Golden Age of Piracy.
May it please your Honors, and you gentlemen of the jury, the crime the prisoners now stand charge with, is piracy, which is the worst form of robbery, both in its nature and its effects, since it disturbs the commerce and friendship betwixt different nations, and if left unpunished, involves them in war and blood.
I can’t but confess my crimes and sins have been too many, for which, I thank my gracious God for the blessing, I have the utmost abhorrence and aversion; and although I am become as it were a monster unto many, yet I intreat your charitable opinion of my great contrition and godly sorrow for the errors of my past life, and am so far from entertaining the least thoughts of being, by any inducement in nature, drawn into the like evil and wicked courses, if I had the happiness of a longer life granted me in this world, that I shall always retain in mind, and endeavor to follow those excellent precepts of our holy Savior—to love my neighbor as myself; and do unto all men whatsoever I would they should do unto me, living in perfect holy friendship and charity with all mankind.
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About the Author
Jeremy R. Moss is a corporate and real estate lawyer and lobbyist living in Alexandria, Virginia. An emerging author and freelance historian, Jeremy's research is focused on piracy and early colonial maritime history. When not working or writing, Jeremy is a family man and can be found telling stories of adventure and buried treasure to his three young sons.
