William Kidd: from Company Privateer to Anti-Imperial Pirate

Presentation Type

Presentation

Release Option

Event

Description

Between 1696 and 1701 off the coast of Madagascar, Captain Kidd went from being a privateer tasked to hunt pirates only to becoming a pirate himself, executed for his piracy and murder. Previous scholarship such as that of Rebecca Simon has argued that Kidd murdered his gunner name Moore, stole, and plundered merchant ships, regardless of whether the ship was from the British or Mughal empires. This research paper examines books written before, during, and after Kidd’s trial, and execution, to argue that although Kidd was guilty of his crime of piracy and murder of William Moore his motives were complex. Beginning with an analysis of David Cordingly, Miles Ogborn, and then Benerson Little illustrate how, and maybe why, William Kidd became a pirate when he was tasked to hunt pirates in the first place. Examining Kidd’s role working under the East India Company highlights the role the East India Company itself played before, during, and after Captain Kidd’s piracy. In the end, this research paper addressed the more complex question of how, and, perhaps, why, did Captain William Kidd turn to piracy in the context of East India Company policy in the Indian Ocean.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Presenters/Co-Presenters

Spencer Garner, Georgia Southern University

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Robert Batchelor

Department of Primary Presenter's Major

Department of History

Primary Presenter's Major(s)

History

Location

Concurrent Sessions (Room 231)

Symposium Year

2022