Steven C. Hahn

This project investigates the lives of 209 mariners accused of piracy who accepted a pardon from the British crown in the Bahamas in 1718. In assessing pirate motives, this study reveals that class, age, and regional divisions beset the pirate community and that the pardon was most attractive to mariners possessing greater social and economic capital. By focusing holistically on their maritime careers, it reclaims the humanity of pirates, connects the story of piracy at sea with the land-based communities that sometimes supported it, and illuminates the entangled histories of far-flung places in the Atlantic world. I intend to use the grant as summer salary, devoting my time exclusively to writing.