The Black Flag Still Flies: Heritage and the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean

Pirates have long played an integral role in people’s ideas of the history and heritage of the Caribbean, yet this heritage goes undefined. While academic scholarship on piracy has increased in recent years, no investigation has yet been done on how piracy manifests as part of the heritage of the region. This paper is an attempt to examine this understudied area, and extend research on heritage in the Caribbean into a new direction. The concept of heritage as defined by Smith and Waterton in their essay ‘The Envy of the World?’ Intangible Heritage in England (2009) has provided the basis for the conceptualization of the heritage of piracy in this paper. They contend that all heritage is inherently intangible and that heritage is “the performance and negotiation of identity, values and a sense of place” (Smith and Waterton 2009, 292). By examining what form the heritage of pirates and piracy from the Golden Age (1650-1724) takes today, and how both Europeans and Americans, and Afro...Show morePirates have long played an integral role in people’s ideas of the history and heritage of the Caribbean, yet this heritage goes undefined. While academic scholarship on piracy has increased in recent years, no investigation has yet been done on how piracy manifests as part of the heritage of the region. This paper is an attempt to examine this understudied area, and extend research on heritage in the Caribbean into a new direction. The concept of heritage as defined by Smith and Waterton in their essay ‘The Envy of the World?’ Intangible Heritage in England (2009) has provided the basis for the conceptualization of the heritage of piracy in this paper. They contend that all heritage is inherently intangible and that heritage is “the performance and negotiation of identity, values and a sense of place” (Smith and Waterton 2009, 292). By examining what form the heritage of pirates and piracy from the Golden Age (1650-1724) takes today, and how both Europeans and Americans, and Afro-Caribbeans view that heritage, this paper contends that pirates are absolutely part of the heritage of the Caribbean, and that pirate heritage manifests in both the modern romanticized idea of pirates portrayed in popular culture for European and Americans, and as part of the colonial legacy for Afro-Caribbeans. Moreover, while both of these groups do see pirates of the Golden Age as part of their heritage, the first embraces and celebrates it, whereas the second does not. This provides a clear example of the dissonance of all heritage, as described by Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) and Smith and Waterton (2009); while heritage may be viewed as positive by one group, it will be viewed as negative by another.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

The Black Flag Still Flies: Heritage and the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean