Rhode Island Piracy

Words: 1793
Pages: 8
Open Document
No colony rebelled more against the new policies than Rhode Island. The small colony’s reputation as a safe haven for pirates, and Governor Walter Clarke’s refusal to aggressively pursue them in his community, set off a series of events leading to the real threat that the crown would revoke the colony’s charter. Over a seven year period, the Board of Trade sent a flurry of threatening correspondence to Rhode Island officials demanding they arrest and prosecute known pirates hiding in their colony. In 1698, in an effort to display their adherence to the Lord of Trade’s wishes, the Rhode Island Admiralty court prosecuted two suspected pirates before the Admiralty court. However, in traditionally defiant fashion, they conducted the trial under …show more content…
There was simply no court in the colonies in the seventeenth century with the proper jurisdiction to try pirates. For the colonies to actively pursue the crown’s aggressive anti-piracy policies, the question of jurisdiction in piracy trials had to be resolved with landmark legislation. To that end, the British Parliament passed An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Piracy, also known as the Piracy Act of 1700. Although it conferred significant authority to local courts, its range was limited to the colonies. This was a reflection of the crown’s growing understanding of piracy’s evolving nature and the difficulties in bringing suspects to justice under the existing laws. “All Piracies, Felonies, and Robberies committed in or upon the Sea…” replaced the vague language “Treasons, Felonies, Robberies, Murthers, and Confederates upon the Sea,” imbedded in the 1536 Act.” The inclusion of the term ‘piracy,’ a first in English law, reflects the idea that piracy was no longer a general term for a series of crimes committed at Sea, but a crime in and of itself. It also widened the definition of piracy beyond the archaic robbery at sea interpretation. The 1700 Piracy Act made several maritime actions piracy, including; a captain who ran away with his …show more content…
He incorporated both his personal views of the proper way to try pirates, and elements of the Treason Trials Act (1696), into the new statute. Anyone in the courtroom for the trial of Joseph Dawson and the rest of Every’s crew in 1696 would have recognized similarities between the proceedings of that trial, in which Hedges presided as president of the court, and the legislation he drafted months later. Chief among his personal preferences for prosecuting pirates was to convict harshly and ask for the sovereign’s mercy. This aligned with the traditional method of dealing with common felons under English law. In his opening address to the grand jury, Hedges expands on this belief, “If a jury happens in these cases to be too severe, there is room for Mercy, and I am confident, that upon a just representation, the Innocent never failed of obtaining it; but for a fault, neglect, or errour on the other hand, there is no relief for injured
Show More

Related Documents: Rhode Island Piracy

Which Colony Allowed Freedom Of Religion To All Christians?

freedom of religion to all Christians? Massachusetts Virginia Plymouth Rhode Island Maryland Pg. 43 top paragraph in our text book states, "Although committed Anglicans themselves, the proprietors guaranteed religious freedom to all Christian faiths." This is under the category of "The Carolinas". However, Carolina is not an answer choice. I selected Rhode Island because of page 43 that states, " For a time, Rhode Island was the only colony in which all faiths (including Judaism) could worship…

Words 444 - Pages 2

On The First Shots Of The Revolution: The Gaspee Affair

went by. In August, Alexander Wedderburn, the attorney-general for Great Britain, pronounced the Gaspee affair to be a crime of ‘five times the magnitude of the Stamp Act riots’. The Earl of Dartmouth termed it ‘an offense of much deeper dye than piracy… an act of high treason, levying war against the king.” In 1772 and the years leading up to it the colonists had been becoming angry over taxes and England not letting them smuggle goods in from other countries. So the colonists finally got fed up…

Words 520 - Pages 3

Euro-American Influence On Madagascar

First, as Jane Hooper argues, “…the age of piracy coincided with a period of rapid state development within Madagascar, as various European and American groups introduced oceanic trade to regions that had been isolated from this trade previously.” The pirates did not simply exist on the island, independent of the native populations; they interacted with and in the long run changed the nature of leadership and life on…

Words 1537 - Pages 7

Robert Auchmuncy: The Quelch And Bellamy Trial

The proliferation of Atlantic piracy and the British government’s continued crackdown in the decade following the Treaty of Utrecht saw more English piracy trials than the previous fifty years combined. This increased exposure to civil law procedures and piracy trials gave many commissioners the experience and knowledge that their counterparts lacked in the years following the implementation of William III’s statute. Additionally, piracy’s burgeoning popularity in public print, be it in published…

Words 1598 - Pages 7

First Steps Essay

colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now north Carolina. Both are disastrous. The colonists left there in 1585 are soon desperate to return, and are brought back to England by Drake in 1586. Another group of settlers is brought to the island in 1587, a year which sees the first child born in America to English parents. She is called Virginia Dare (Virginia, in honour of England's virgin queen, is the name given to the colony). But when an English ship next visits the island, in 1590, no…

Words 2720 - Pages 11

Death Penalty Research Paper

UNITED STATES DEATH PENALTY Donald McCrimmon PHI 103 Instructor: Robert Gala February 17, 2013 United States Death Penalty [Whether] it be juveniles or a child, someone on medication or plain accidental death, must be taken in consideration when the death penalty is imposed. This has been a great debate for several years, and no pertinent answers have been agreed upon as yet. Taking the life of a human being, whether via lethal injection, or the electric chair, is something that needs addressing…

Words 1688 - Pages 7

Powers: United States Senate and Section Essay

of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 4: When vacancies happen in the Representation…

Words 2317 - Pages 10

Privateers: The Oxford Companion To American Military History

of The Oxford Companion to American Military History “Privateering was a legal enterprise, conducted under state licenses called letters of marque and reprisal; governments subjected it to increasing regulation as it grew in scope and importance. Piracy, on the other hand, was a capital crime that European states had largely eliminated by the early 1700s.” A simpler way to look at…

Words 2307 - Pages 10

American Polictics Final Essay

American Politics Final Exam Questions 1. In the design of the United States government, Congress was given the legislative power. It "makes the laws" for the nation. a. What procedure does the Constitution require for Congress to make law? Article I of the Constitution "all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives." The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process––legislation…

Words 2906 - Pages 12

The Constitution Of The United States: A Transcription

of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. When vacancies happen in the Representation…

Words 4698 - Pages 19