[JmyBryan]

Aargh!

[inkling]

Thanks, Mateys! Arrrrr....

[Irishguy]

captain jack sparrow ping alert!

[LibWhacker]

Yeah, right. The founding fathers were no better than pirates. More from the moral equivalence crowd. My disgust with modern academia grows daily.

[Billthedrill]

Arrr! I'm thinkin' that Captain Acosta be stretchin' the point just a bit, matey. Time to keelhaul the buggerblaster for castin' aspersions on old Ben and the boys. They was all sorts of social organizations with charters and elected heads in them days, including a number of chorches. And they was all sorts of poirates, too, from privateers to rogue military ships to escaped prisoners commandeering vessels. Not all was nice like that Laffite feller.

I wuz allas suspicious of that Sammy Adams feller, though. Allas in and out at all hours of the night and he niver seemed to lack for rum. If'n I didn't know bitter I'd say he was a smuggler, arr, begar and arrr...

[GOP Poet]

Aarrgh ping :-)

[Springman]

Ping.

[b3arsfan]

The pirates and the Founding Fathers do have a lot in common. Whether it is common knowledge or not, many of the Founders were Freemasons, and so were the pirates. The common symbol of pirates, the skull and crossbones flag was, and still is a Masonic symbol.

[NavyCanDo]

I agree with the story. Did Pirates have the moral equivalence of our founding fathers? No, absolutely not, and thats not what the story is saying, but they were rebels and outcast, and had a rugged individualistic personality, and most important a disdain of aristocracy. The same can be said for many of our early patriots, Militiamen, pioneers and frontiersmen. There is plenty of historic documentation that Pirates and their descendants played a role in the American Revolution. I happen to be a related to the lieutenant on the frigate Josiah which was captained by Pirate Bartholomew Sharpe. No less than 10 men in this family line are on the roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution. Not bad for the blood kin of a Pirate.

[nickcarraway]

I'm glad to know my ancestor John Paul [Jones] was doing the right thing. After all, he did add the "Jones" to avoid taxes. A noble goal.

[familyop]

...another ignorant, Euro-identity academic, in her wishful thinking, confusing privateers with pirates. Revisionism is disgusting.

[Caipirabob]

Good, so now we have a "cultural reason" to make librat traitors walk the plank? Shooting isn't good enough for these treasonous scabs.

[Hoplite]

[smith288]

"This chair be hi, says I"

[mrsmith]

Pirate society was the epitome of pure democracy.
A greedy mob ruled by it's elected tyrant.

Undoubtedly fun to study from a far distance though.

[Boiler Plate]

Just 81 days till

Talk Like A Pirate Day

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html