Colonial Williamsburg

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 10

Top Stories

A Brief History of Piracy

Pirates are sea robbers who prey on other ships and rob them of their goods and sometimes capture the ships for their own purposes. Piracy began over 2000 years ago in Ancient Greece, when pirates threatened the trading routes of Ancient Greece. The threat has continued among seafaring nations ever since . . .

Learn more

Primary Source of the Month:
"An account of the behaviour and last dying speeches of the six pirates . . ."

This broadside describes the execution of six pirates in Boston and marks the final chapter in the short career of an obscure pirate named John Quelch. While his reputation pales in comparison to better-known contemporaries like Captain Kidd or Blackbeard, Quelch’s case is noted for the British Crown's unprecedented use of power and a dramatic government shift away from supporting privateers as legitimate agents during war.

Learn more

Teaching Strategy: Why Did People
"Go A-Pirating?"

In the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, most pirates who sailed the Caribbean were men who had once sailed in the Royal Navy, on merchant vessels, or as privateers. Most of them were uneducated and came from poor families in Great Britain, Europe, or the thirteen American colonies. A few women and African Americans also became pirates.

Learn more

Colonial Williamsburg Teaching Resources for Your Classroom

Colonial Williamsburg offers a variety of quality instructional materials dealing with 18th-century life, including:

• Pieces of Eight
• Colonial Spy Glass

Learn more

Teaching News

IMB Piracy Reporting Center
Do you teach current events in the classroom? Are you looking for a Web site offering information on the topic of modern-day piracy? Try the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre. The site provides a wealth of information about piracy, including a list of piracy-prone areas, alerts and warnings, daily status reports, and a live piracy map with details on each reported act of piracy or attempted piracy.

Learn more

Quotation of the Month

"As in all lands where there are many people, there are some theeves, so in all Seas much frequented, there are some pyrats . . ."

—Captain John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia,
New England & the Summer Isles . . . , 1624.

If you would like to subscribe to the Teacher Gazette, please send
an e-mail to teachergazette@cwf.org with the subject heading "subscribe."

If you would like to be removed from future Teacher Gazette mailings, please send
an e-mail to teachergazette@cwf.org with the subject heading "unsubscribe."