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Title details for Patriot Pirates by Robert H. Patton - Available

Patriot Pirates

The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution

by Robert H. Patton
Alan Sklar
Audiobook
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They were legalized pirates empowered by the Continental Congress to raid and plunder, at their own considerable risk, as much enemy trade as they could successfully haul back to America's shores. They played a decisive role in America's struggle for independence and later turned their seafaring talents to the slave trade, revealing the conflict between enterprise and morality central to American history.


In Patriot Pirates, Robert H. Patton, the grandson of the battlefield genius of World War II, writes how privateering engaged all levels of Revolutionary life, from the dockyards to the assembly halls; how it gave rise to wild speculation in purchased shares in privateer ventures, enabling sailors to make more money in a month than they might earn in a year; and how privateering created fortunes that survive to this day.


As one naval historian wrote, "The great battles of the American Revolution were fought on land, but independence was won at sea."


Patton writes how, in addition to its strategic and economic importance, privateering played a large political role in the Revolution. For example, Benjamin Franklin, from his diplomatic post in Paris, secretly encouraged skippers to sell their captured goods in French ports—a calculated effort on Franklin's part to break the neutrality agreements between France and Britain, bring the two countries to blows, and take the pressure off American fighters.


This is a sweeping tale of maritime rebel-entrepreneurs bent on personal profit and national freedom.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 3, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400126606
      • File size: 300558 KB
      • Duration: 10:26:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The privateers were "an instant navy" for the Americans, but the British saw the crews that attacked their ships for both profit and patriotism as pirates. For both sides, they turned out to be an important part of the Colonies' fight against England. Alan Sklar narrates with spirit and enthusiasm, bringing alive both the historic conflicts and the political atmosphere of the Revolution. Sklar and author Robert H. Patton solidly convey the atmosphere in which privateering developed and flourished, gradually winning over the support of the English public and skeptics at home. The story of these businesslike patriots is intriguing as it casts light on a little-told part of American history. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 24, 2008
      Patton (The Pattons: A Personal History of an American Family
      ) turns his attention to an often overlooked aspect of the Revolutionary War: maritime privateering, or legalized piracy. Patton is careful to distinguish the mixed motives of these “patriot pirates,” for often there was less patriotism than simple greed. Nevertheless, their work fulfilled George Washington's strategic aim to win the war by exhausting Britain into giving up the struggle. In what Patton terms “a massive seaborne insurgency” that dwarfed the efforts of the colonists' small navy, thousands of privateers nettled British shipping, sometimes gaining vast fortunes. Privateering also turned into a handy political issue when Benjamin Franklin, the American representative in France, succeeded in persuading his hosts to allow Yankee skippers to sell their booty in French ports—a breach of the country's neutrality that aggravated diplomatic tensions, as Franklin knew it would, and helped cement Paris's commitment to American independence. Patton gives an absorbing exhumation of an undersung subject that will be of particular interest to Revolution buffs.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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