I am in my hometown of Biloxi, Mississippi, preparing to speak several times tomorrow at the University of Mobile. While here, I just finished a fascinating new biography of the nineteenth century Gulf Coast’s most famous pirates, Pierre and Jean Laffitte.
The book, The Pirates Lafitte by William C. Davis, traces the New Orleans rogues from the beginnings of their criminal trade through their alliance with General Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans and on through to the romantic infamy they shared years after their deaths.
Most interesting about the book is the author’s description of the hierarchies of the pirate bands of the era. Writes Davis:
Most of the pirate communities of the world operated in some degree as egalitarian enterprises in which leaders ruled, to the degree they governed at all, by common consent rather than election, and only after they had demonstrated an ability to take command and direct for the mutual benefit.
I find it amusing that we live in a day when the term “pirate communities” can be used without irony. Nonetheless, one wonders how different these “egalitarian” pirate “communities” are from more respectable ventures, in which authority is, by definition, rejected and the common bond is individual self-interest apart from a common good.
Could it be that this kind of pirate politics is the order of the day, here and abroad? And, if so, could we be learning what pirates of old discovered: There’s no honor among thieves?
