blog 9

when looking into specific examples of pirates, one of the most famous was Sir Henry Morgan (1635-1688)

He was born in 1635 in Llanrhymny, then a village between Cardiff and Newport, in South Wales, to a prosperous farming family. It is believed he spent his childhood in Wales but how he came from Wales to the West Indies is uncertain.

By 1662 Henry Morgan had his first command as a captain of a privateer ship involved in an attack on Santiago de Cuba. A privateer was empowered by the British government, or a representative of the government such as the Governor of Jamaica, to raid and attack the Spanish on England’s behalf. Privateers were allowed to keep some of their plunder for themselves. So in a way, privateers could be thought of as ‘legal’ pirates.

The exact cause of his death on August 25th 1688 aged 53 is uncertain; some sources say tuberculosis, whilst others cite acute alcoholism. At the time of his death he was a very wealthy man indeed, with large sugar plantations and 109 slaves.