A General History of the Pyrates

About this book

This book, published in 1724, tells the lives of the most notorious pirates of the early eighteenth century: Henry Avery, who captured a treasure ship of the Mughal emperor; Edward Teach, called Blackbeard, who went into battle with lighted fuses in his beard; the gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet; Calico Jack Rackham; and the women pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who fought beside the men. It also records the articles, the written rules, by which pirate crews governed themselves, shared their plunder and compensated the wounded.

Context and significance

The author, 'Captain Charles Johnson', has never been identified; some scholars once believed he was Daniel Defoe. The book is the main source for much of what we know, and imagine, about pirates, and Stevenson drew on it for Treasure Island. For a pirate hero of fiction, read Sabatini's Captain Blood.

About the author