Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
Cotton Mather did not mince words about his hatred of piracy but love of attempting to save souls. He had the same attraction to witches as pirates. He expanded his work of soul saving as dictated by the Boston area courts--common murderers, witches, pirates, traitorous soldiers, all were his game. Anyone condemned to death he saw as a fit for his need for them to find God before the noose broke their necks. He was not humble about his special relationship to the All Mighty and had a unique rigor in his fire-and-brimstone sermons especially those he preached to very small audiences. He even travelled to Eastham to search out "Black Sam" Bellamy's true love Marie Hallett because he had heard from the Bellamy convoy pirates condemned to death of how the Eastham community had labelled her a "witch". Her's was one more soul that must be saved by Cotton Mather. He had even heard rumors that the Devil had taken her mind from her. Cotton Mather Home Page |
In opposition to Cotton Mather, Blackbeard had a different
tract to preach from his
pulpit of piracy. His and Captain Benjamin Hornigold's sloops approached a French guineaman (slave ship) from both sides and with broadsides from each ship almost cleared the deck of men. This was
The Concord out of St. Malo captained by D'Ocier. It had a
cargo of jewels, plate, gold dust, money and slaves among other things. They dropped the survivors on the nearest island and started partying with them still in sight. Then they gutted much of the slaver to create an
atrium like space for the radical democracy of no private cabins on pirate ships which was part of the Brethren of the Coast code. They renamed her
Queen Anne's Revenge and she became Blackbeard's flagship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_code