ABSTRACT
As quoted in Chapter 9, in 1718, Nicholas Trott, Judge of the Vice Admiralty and Chief Justice of the Province of South Carolina, said the following during a pirate trial:
As to the crime you are convicted of, which is piracy, the evil and wickedness of it is evident to the reason of all men. So that it needs no words to aggravate the same: it is so destructive of all trade and commerce between nation and nation, that pirates are called enemies to mankind with whom no faith nor oath ought to be kept; and they are termed in our law brutes and beasts of prey, and therefore it is in the interest, as well as the duty, of all governments to bring such offenders to punishment.2
