A study of the pirate captain Ned Low supplies an episode from his 1722 cruise off New England. Low's crew seized a Nantucket whaling sloop, forced white and Wampanoag sailors into pirate service, and released the vessel after taking men and equipment. Contemporary newspaper reports described the abuse and killing of Native American captives, giving the episode an unusually direct documentary trail. The reading presents piracy as coercive maritime violence rather than a romantic adventure story.
Chapter · 11:28-16:48
Ned Low, coerced whalers, and piracy's human cost
A book reading follows pirate Ned Low's seizure of a Nantucket whaler and the brutal coercion of Wampanoag crewmen.