Category: Trade

Hoist the Colors High: A Life Under the Jolly Roger

Major Stede Bonnet.
Artist Unknown, London, 1724.
Print engraving.
From Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pyrates, in the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division Washington.

This engraving shows the notorious pirate Captain Stede Bonnet, one of many pirates whose lives Captain Charles Johnsons details in his book, A General History of the Pyrates. Bonnet stands before his ship, the Revenge. Upon its mast flies Bonnet’s version of the much-feared Jolly Roger, a black flag with a skull, crossbones, and dagger. Like many of his contemporaries, Bonnet incorporated symbols of death onto the banner he flew.

The first appearance of the Jolly Roger was recorded in 1700, during the early years of the peak of the Golden Age of Piracy. Captain Emmanuel Wynn reportedly flew it while in the Caribbean. The name Jolly Roger has two possible origins: it could come from either 1.) la jolie rouge, a French phrase meaning “pretty red,” or 2.) Old Roger, a nickname for the devil; it could also come from some combination of the two phrases. Before the Jolly Roger became the official flag of pirates sailing in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, many flew a red flag, hence the French. As piracy became pervasive, pirates were associated with the devil for their violence and success in raiding European ships, hence the nickname. Thus, the black flag with its deathly symbolism found its moniker in the association with the previous pirate flag and the devil those who flew it evoked.

While the Jolly Roger united pirates under it, most pirate captains had their own version of the banner. “Black” Sam Bellamy and Edward England, for example, used the classic skull with crossbones underneath, while Francis Spriggs displayed a skeletal figure holding a spear and hourglass, and Jack “Calico” Rackham had a skull with crossed swords underneath it. Each captain had his own ship or fleet, and those in their crews pledged loyalty first to their captain, and then to the piratical ideal.

What was the piratical ideal? Why did so many sailors jump ship from British or French navies and merchant fleets and instead pledge loyalty to the Jolly Roger? The black flag lured many sailors to it with three promises: economic success, democratic governance, and vengeance. Some sailors turned to piracy after a history of privateering, a get-rich-quick scheme that was the legal version of piracy—so long as European states were willing to employ the sailors. Others turned to piracy because life aboard merchant, slave, and navy ships was unbearable—punishments were incredibly harsh for crew members sailing underneath English captains. More still turned on the European powers because most pirate crews were very democratic—they had the option to depose their captain if he was unsatisfactory and spoils were neatly divided amongst every crew member. Finally, almost all were drawn by the promise of justice—for the conditions they suffered upon the British ships or the abrupt unemployment they were dealt after the War of the Spanish Succession.

The Jolly Roger united sailors into a nation of outlaws, but the European states, particularly the English, ultimately created that nation. They drove away hundreds of sailors, whose only recourse was to don a mask of violence and attempt to invoke the devil as they attacked the countries that had wronged them.

Sources:

Image: Artist Unknown. “Major Stede Bonnet.” In A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson, print engraving. London: T. Warner, 1724. https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2015/09/27/a-pirates-life-was-his-stede-bonnets

Johnson, Charles. A General History of the Pyrates: from Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence to the Present Time. London: T. Warner, 1724. http://find.galegroup.com.avoserv2.library.fordham.edu/ecco/retrieve.do?scale=0.50&sort=Author&docLevel=FASCIMILE&prodId=ECCO&tabID=T001&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28BN%2CNone%2C7%29T072262%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&inPS=true&userGroupName=nysl_me_fordham&docId=CW3301317417&currentPosition=1&workId=0442400200&relevancePageBatch=CW101317343&contentSet=ECCOArticles&callistoContentSet=ECCOArticles&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&reformatPage=N&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&scale=0.50&pageIndex=74&orientation=&showLOI=&quickSearchTerm=&stwFuzzy=&doDirectDocNumSearch=false&searchId=

Kuhn, Gabriel. Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on the Golden Age of Piracy. Oakland: PM Press, 2010. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.avoserv2.library.fordham.edu/eds/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzMwNTQ4Ml9fQU41?sid=3e53900f-4780-4be1-b625-4311f476dc6e@pdc-v-sessmgr02&vid=3&format=EB&rid=7

Pringle, Patrick. Jolly Roger: The Story of the Great Age of Piracy. San Francisco: Dover Publications, 2012. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=OQj17APXUUUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=jolly+roger&ots=7BgMJ6rh_N&sig=zob5DlmAOo171XbX1agJiRmiHr4#v=onepage&q=jolly%20roger&f=false

Rediker, Marcus. “‘Under the Banner of King Death’: The Social World of Anglo-American Pirates, 1716 to 1726.” The William and Mary Quarterly 38, no. 2 (April 1981) https://www-jstor-org.avoserv2.library.fordham.edu/stable/1918775?seq=8#?

Cacao’s Connection to Christianity and Its Roots as Currency

El Señor del Cacao (Christ of Cacao).
Unknown maker, Mexico City, c. 16th century.
Painted stone.
The Cathedral of Mexico City.

This statue features Jesus Christ holding a small cacao branch with gold leaves, from which it derives its name: Christ of Cacao. The statue, located in Mexico City’s cathedral, draws devotees from across the nation, many of whom leave offerings of chocolate at the base of the pedestal, as shown in the image. While this might seem like an odd donation to leave at Christ’s feet, chocolate has a long history of religious connotation in Central America.

Amerindians in Central America in the 15th century prized cacao as a currency because of the delicacy it produced—chocolate—and for its religious significance. They utilized it as currency because of its convenience: the beans were abundant enough that people had ready access to them, yet rare enough that they could act as a standard, much like gold does today. Up until the arrival of the Spanish, the Amerindians treated the cacao like money. The tribes who had more cacao trees on their land had greater weight with the other tribes because they had more money. When the Spanish arrived, the Europeans immediately strove to seize the cacao production and thus control the market.

The cacao’s product, chocolate, however, truly gave the bean special significance. The upper classes drank the hot drink at political banquets and during religious rituals; its presence was required during the signing of treaties. The Amerindians demanded chocolate’s appearance at these important events because they believed it had mystical powers.

The Popol Vuh is a Mayan epic that prominently features cacao. It tells the story of the maize god—the main Mayan god, whose crop provided their daily sustenance—whose skin is often depicted as being embedded with cacao pods. His journey requires him to spend time in the underworld, and when he emerges to the light once again, he comes through a grove of cacao trees, which often grew by the entrances to caves. For the Amerindians, then, the cacao was an important symbol of rebirth.

The Spanish, upon, their arrival, instantly recognized the similarities in the maize god’s journey and that of Christ, and manipulated those similarities to help spread Christianity and more easily control the local populace. They integrated the maize god’s story into Christ’s, forever connecting the two alongside the idea of cacao’s relationship with rebirth. This integration of religions came with numerous advantages for the Spanish. Specifically, it meant that when Amerindians left cacao offerings at the feet of statues of Jesus and saints, the priests could collect those offerings, amass them, and grow wealthy. Conquest for the Spanish came more easily when they could buy the people rather than fight them.

Thus Christ and cacao are forever intertwined in Central American history, and the statue of Christ holding cacao still draws offerings of chocolate today.

Sources:

Image: Unknown. c. 16th century. “El Señor del Cacao.” Mexico City, Cathedral of Mexico City. “Weaponizing Cacao.” Chocolate Class: Multimedia Essays on Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food. (20 February 2015). Accessed 6 Dec. 2018. https://chocolateclass.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/weaponizing-cacao/

Aguilar-Moreno, Manuel. “The Good and Evil of Chocolate in Colonial Mexico” In Chocolate in Mesoamerica : A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by Cameron L. McNeil, 273-88. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. https://login.avoserv2.library.fordham.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=380221&site=eds-live.

Aliphat, Mario and Laura Caso Barrera. “The Itza Maya Control over Cacao” In Chocolate in Mesoamerica : A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by Cameron L. McNeil, 289-306. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. https://login.avoserv2.library.fordham.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=380221&site=eds-live.

Earle, Rebecca. The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492-1700. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Martin, Simon. “Cacao in Ancient Maya Religion” In Chocolate in Mesoamerica : A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by Cameron L. McNeil, 273-88. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. https://login.avoserv2.library.fordham.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=380221&site=eds-live.

Chocolate: The International Sensation

Joseph-Théodore Van Cauqenbergh, Paris, France 1774
Silver, aramanth wood
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.
Van Cauqenbergh, Joseph-Théodore. Chocolate Pot. 1774. Silver, aramanth wood. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland. 1948. https://art.thewalters.org/detail/5934/chocolate-pot/.

Provenance: John Alfonse Walter, Aux Cayes, Haiti, prior to 1793, [mode of acquisition unknown] [1827 inventory]; Susan Rodgers (wife of John Alfonse Walter), Baltimore [date of acquisition unknown], by inheritance; Laura Walter, Baltimore [date of acquisition unkown], by inheritance; Ethel R. Gray, Baltimore, 1911, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1948, by purchase.

Cacao is a bean crop grown on trees and the fundamental basis for chocolate production. Europeans arriving in the New World found indigenous people to be consuming chocolate most commonly in the form of a drink with froth, and when the newcomers began to explore its additional uses, they created foodstuffs and even medication. The natives created chocolate by roasting and skinning the cacao beans, then crushing and grinding them to produce a more malleable substance, often adding other natural substances such as vanilla or honey for an improved taste.

Cacao played a vital cultural role in the lifestyle of native Americans, such as the Mayans and Aztecs. Archaeological research revealed engravings in ceremonial clay bowls of deities associated with the crop, and chocolate’s linguistic origin actually traces back to a phrase about the food of the god’s.

The European settlers saw much more commercial than religious potential in cacao, and word and taste of chocolate quickly spread across the continents. Thousands of pounds of the it were shipped to Europe, where the English eventually combined it with milk, liquor, and other ingredients. The manufacturing process involved the cleaning, roasting, cracking, and fanning of cacao beans, followed by their grinding and mixture with the prepared accompanying ingredients; the work required was quite manual and similar to that done by the native Americans with whom they found it. In Europe, this work was assisted by early manufacturing machinery, such as heated cauldrons, surfaces, mortars, and surfaces.

In the late 17th century, France’s consumption of chocolate, particularly by royalty, was common knowledge. The Siamese queen sent gifts of two silver chocolatiérs and five chocolate-pots, one of which was entirely gold, to Louis XIV. These grandiose presents served as models for equipment that soon became used all over Europe and even in British American colonies. The image above shows a later design of the instrument gifted to Louis XIV, the silver chocolatiére.

The transport and spread of chocolate resulted in its eventual development into a social symbol. In European countries such as Spain and Italy, it was consumed largely by those of upper and religious class. It was used in artwork as an indicator of social elevation, particularly in situations where it was being served by a foreign servant, which historical perspective can attribute to the crop’s close connection with imperialism.

Chocolate’s presence further generated something of a social stereotype surrounding women. This was rooted in its consumption by nuns and the European priests’ condemnation of it because of the financial expense; however, chocolate later became a symbol of female malignance in general. Its association with witchcraft became a widespread idea; it was said to be used in love potions, with other key ingredients such as menstrual blood. This social link was solidified on a higher, more legal level by Inquisition allegations of the creation of such potions.

Sources:

Bonnart, Robert. Un cavalier et une dame buvant du chocolat. 1718. Engraved maunuscript. BnF, Department of Manuscripts, CLAIRAMBAULT 503, National Library of France. Accessed October 9, 2018. http://classes.bnf.fr/essentiels/grand/ess_1558.htm.

Coe, Sophie D. et al. The True History of Chocolate. United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson, 1996.

Earle, Rebecca. The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race, and the Colonial Experiences in Spanish America, 1492-1700. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.