"In Climes Unknown": Climate Change and the Reimagining of Pirates in Colonial New England

• In Event: Studying Nature

Abstract

During the seventeenth century, many regions in the North Atlantic from Europe to New England faced the coldest and most severe weather of the Little Ice Age. The physical impacts of this phenomenon, including crop failures and high mortality rates, have been linked to various instances of social and political instability, particularly in Europe and European colonies in the Americas. While increases in scapegoating and state breakdown during the seventeenth century have been studied in the context of climate anxiety, no studies have considered how climate influenced social perceptions of pirates during this period. In this study, I examine the writings of popular New England figures such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Samuel Sewall, as well as Captain John Smith’s and Reverend William Hubbard’s respective general histories of New England, to determine how British colonial leaders’ interpretations of climate during the seventeenth century influenced their attitudes about piracy. British pirates were more accepted in coastal New England settlements in the early seventeenth century because of the support they offered to colonies struggling to establish themselves in a consistently chilly climate. In the 1690s and early eighteenth century, British officials in the metropole and colonial hinterlands began to persecute pirates more, reflecting colonial leaders’ anxiety over particularly harsh winters and weather extremes. As our current global climate continues to warm dramatically, we can use the lessons about social persecution during the Little Ice Age to emphasize the importance of multicultural cooperation in building more resilient communities on a hotter planet.

Author

• Lillian Taylor, University of Pittsburgh