ABSTRACT
This chapter examines several elements that are key to understanding the nature and inherent complexities of piracy and privateering from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. It aims to evaluate the role of the state in utilizing and suppressing pirates and privateers. Once pirates and privateers lost their utility to the state, often by becoming too much of a nuisance to trade or disrupting diplomatic relations with other powers, the government in London sought to eliminate the problem. The courts and colonial governors only had limited tools at their disposal to combat pirates. Hunting down pirates required a strong naval presence. Sailors who went to sea as pirates or privateers left relatively little evidence about their motivations. Men were also motivated to try their hands in pirates and privateers by patriotism, a sense of adventure, or dissatisfaction with their employment. Resentment against the harsh conditions and poor pay sailors suffered at sea drove some men to turn pirate.
