Pirate History
The most successful buccaneer was Sir Henry Morgan. He came to the West Indies when he was very young and plundered the Spanish settlements of Puerto del Principe, Puerto Bello, and Maracaibo. In 1671 Morgan completely destroyed the city of Panama and then took all of their valuable goods.
In 1701 the war of Spanish Succession began and the buccaneers stopped capturing ships and went to war with France and Britain against their enemy, the Spanish. When the War of Spanish Succession was over the buccaneers had no jobs, so they became pirates again. They began to attack Spanish fleets of treasure ships that brought supplies from Europe and treasure back home. In 1714 the buccaneers were chasing a treasure fleet called The Plate Fleet off of the tip of Florida when a hurricane hit. Most of the Plate Fleet's treasure was saved and taken to shore, but a pirate named Henry Jennings heard about the treasure and sailed there and took it.
The buccaneers became so strong that the merchant ship captains insisted that their countries put a stop to the pirates. They did not offer much help, but did offer what is called amnesty to all pirates if they would stop being pirates. That means that they would be forgiven of their crimes without being punished. Most pirates just laughed and dared the countries to come stop them. In 1717 British Captain Woodes Rogers was sent to defeat the pirates. He played a trick on the buccaneers by trapping them in their harbor at New Providence. New Providence is in the Bahamas. Over one thousand pirates were trapped there and a big battle began. In the end Captain Woodes Rogers defeated the pirates.
Jean Lafitte who lived off of the coast of Louisiana in a sheltered Bay named Barataria Bay. He was often called a gentleman pirate and walked around New Orleans without being afraid of capture. He also had a pirate base on the Island of Padre Island off of the coast of Texas. In the early eighteen hundreds the Golden Age of Piracy was over.
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