If a Pirate I Must Be...: The True Story of "Black Bart," King of the Caribbean Pirates [Paperback]

Richard Sanders (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

In If a Pirate I Must Be…, Richard Sanders tells the larger-than-life story of Bartholomew Roberts, aka “Black Bart.” Born in a rural town, Roberts rose from third mate on a slave ship to pirate captain in a matter of months. Before long, his combination of audaciousness and cunning won him fame and fortune from the fisheries of Newfoundland to the slave ports of West Africa. Sanders brings to life a fascinating world of theater and ritual, where men (a third of whom were black) lived a close-knit, egalitarian life, democratically electing their officers and sharing their spoils. They were highly (if surreptitiously) popular with many merchants, with whom they struck incredibly lucrative deals. Yet with a fierce team of Royal Navy pirate hunters tracking his every move, Roberts’ heyday would prove a brief one, and with his capture, the Golden Age of pirates would pass into the lore and legend of books and movies. Based on historical records and journal and on writings by Roberts himself, If a Pirate I Must Be…is the true story of the greatest pirate ever to sail the Caribbean.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Sanders is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who first became fascinated with pirates while living in Columbia during the 1990s. He now lives in London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing; First Paperback edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602396248
• ISBN-13: 978-1602396241
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #597,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaks the Hollywood Stereotypes of Pirates August 9, 2007

By Janice Ebeling

Format:Hardcover

Throw out everything you think you know about pirates. What did a real pirate captain look like? Certainly not Jack Sparrow. Captain Hook is probably a closer visual.

This is not a novelization, but a historical account of Bartholomew Roberts, the most successful pirate in history. Don't expect some dry history book here, this is fascinating! Sanders includes excerpts of actual accounts, stories and letters from the era.

He paints the full picture of why men turned to piracy - the ship captains' authority was total, and many were very cruel, but none so much as the slave ship captains. These men treated people with such brutality that human life was worthless to them, and they treated their sailors almost as poorly as the slaves. There are accounts of sailors begging food from the slaves - when food and water ran short, the sailors were deprived before the slaves. After all, the captains made no money on the sailors.

It's no wonder when a pirate ship showed up and the captain said, "who wants to be a pirate?" that men eagerly joined the crew.

What struck me as most amazing was the democracy of piracy. The captain and all the officers were elected. The crew voted on destinations. The quartermaster balanced the captain's power.

This book is excellent, a must read for anyone who is not only interested in pirates, but the history of colonies in the Caribbean in that era.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A vivid, fast-moving account of a classic pirate April 18, 2007

By Bruce Trinque TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Move over Johnny Depp, "Black Bart" Roberts was the Real Deal dread Pirate of the Caribbean. Active for less than three years (his career was brought to an abrupt end by a Royal Navy grapeshot), Bartholomew Roberts (his birthname was apparently "John Roberts" and the more romantic "Bartholomew" adopted only when he became a pirate -- and the "Black Bart" label is a 20th century invention) was the most successful pirate of the classic golden age of piracy, circa 1720, capturing around 400 vessels (most of them very small). Roberts's typical prey was not wealthy Spanish galleons, but rather small merchant, fishing, and slaving craft, and it was not gold and silver and jewels being sought so much as food, supplies and especially new recruits (some men eagerly joined their pirate captors; others, like Roberts himself, were initially forced to join, but later converted into willing participants). Sanders's account makes clear the bonds between piracy and the slave trade. Slaving vessels were frequently targets of pirate attacks (Roberts was an officer aboard a slaver off the African coast when captured and forced into piracy) and it can be assumed that most pirates had experience aboard such vessels.

Sanders's "If a Pirate I Must Be ..." is a vividly written account of Roberts and, through his story, the larger world of piracy in the early eighteenth century, a story shorn of romance and for that reason all the more gripping.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant tale August 12, 2007

By Seth J. Frantzman HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

In this well written and brilliantly told tale the exploits of `Black Bart' Bartholomew Roberts are told amidst the history of the early 18th century. This is much more than a pirate story. This is stories a vast array of characters and places from Newfoundland to the coast of Africa and Devil's islands. In his time Black Bart was one of the most feared pirates, but not as famous as Blackbeard. He was born in Wales in 1682 and began his career as a pirate in 1719 after having worked as a third mate on a merchant vessel. In the fall and winter of 1719 he made his way as a pirate captain to Brazil and then to the Caribbean, suffering a mutiny and losing a ship in the process. By 1720 he had regained his power and moved to Newfoundland, raiding shipping along the way. From September 1720 to April 1721 he became the scourge of the British and French Caribbean. 1722 found him and a much enlarged crew off the coast of Africa, where he had originally become a pirate.
In truth his career only spanned three years, but it is a story that is far richer than those mere three years. This book is a short history of so many things, from sickness in Britain's slave-colonies of Africa, to Devil's island, to the emergence of white settlement in the Caribbean. Many astounding stories and mini-histories can be found in this volume, from stories of utopias among brigands, to the vanishing Caribs of the Caribbean, the use of slaves aboard Pirate vessels, and the rampant homosexuality and promiscuity among men and pirates in the period. One small oversight is the lack of a map.

A brilliantly told story, if most history were written like this than it would all rival fiction in the stories that would be told.