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Patriot Pirates

The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution

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Patriot Pirates

Written by: Robert H. Patton
Narrated by: Alan Sklar
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About this listen

 They were legalized pirates empowered by the Continental Congress to raid and plunder, at their own considerable risk, as much enemy trade as they could successfully haul back to America's shores. They played a decisive role in America's struggle for independence and later turned their seafaring talents to the slave trade, revealing the conflict between enterprise and morality central to American history.

In Patriot Pirates, Robert H. Patton, the grandson of the battlefield genius of World War II, explains how privatizing engaged all levels of Revolutionary life, from the dockyards to the assembly halls; how it gave rise to wild speculation in purchased shares in privateer ventures, enabling sailors to make more money in a month than they might earn in a year; and how privatizing created fortunes that survive to this day.

As one naval historian wrote, "The great battles of the American Revolution were fought on land, but independence was won at sea."

Patton tells how, in addition to its strategic and economic importance, privatizing played a large political role in the Revolution. For example, Benjamin Franklin, from his diplomatic post in Paris, secretly encouraged skippers to sell their captured goods in French ports - a calculated effort on Franklin's part to break the neutrality agreements between France and Britain, bring the two countries to blows, and take the pressure off American fighters.

This is a sweeping tale of maritime rebel-entrepreneurs bent on personal profit and national freedom.

©2008 Robert H. Patton (P)2008 Tantor Armed Forces Historical United States Military France Pirate War American History Royalty Imperialism Boston
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What the critics say

"[Patriot Pirates] is a well-written examination of an obscure aspect of American military history." (Booklist)
"An absorbing exhumation of an undersung subject that will be of particular interest to Revolution buffs." (Publishers Weekly)
"An illuminating look at an underappreciated chapter of the Revolutionary War: the daring, faintly disreputable, privateer war on British maritime interests...a pleasing mixture of high-seas adventure and shrewd analysis." (Kirkus Reviews)

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