So I’ve been preoccupied with pirates for about a week, ever since the new Real Pirates Museum opened up in Salem adjacent to Charlotte Forten Park on Derby Street. My preoccupation was fostered by initial outrage at the apparent pirate takeover of this relatively new park dedicated to a prominent abolitionist and educator: colorful murals of the pirates within rise about the very minimalist park in a manner which I found dissonant and even offensive. I saw red: this was another Samantha statue moment for me. It wasn’t just the murals: the Real Pirates sign and entryway is centered on the park and there is obvious intent to integrate the attraction with the park. What could be the rationale? I looked through the meeting minutes of the two boards which were charged with approving the walkway, signage, and murals, the Salem Redevelopment Authority and the Public Art Commission, and found some interesting statements from the project manager for Real Pirates to the latter. He connected piracy and abolitionism (and past and present) through an effusive focus on piratical egalitarianism: “the concept of the murals is to portray the values of maritime history honored in Salem today as represented by the jolly roger, a symbol once condemned by nations that enslaved and exploited human beings and now seen as a symbol of what may have been the most democratic and egalitarian society of its time and by five portraits of historic individuals who sought freedom from the oppression and intolerance of their time.” The Commission approved the murals with one condition: that the pirates be disarmed.
Pirate values? That’s the connection? Motley crews in the Golden Age of Piracy shared the same values as Charlotte Forten in the nineteenth century and even Salem today? This seemed a little over the top and brought me into the realm of the Real Pirates Museum, a place I didn’t really want to go: it’s a private business and who am I to tell them what they should or should not be doing? But still, this is a lot of public projection, literally and metaphorically. I’m very familiar (especially after doing a deep dive over this past week) with the historiography of Atlantic piracy in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in which historians like Marcus Rediker, Peter Linebaugh, and others have emphasized the socio-economic structures which churned up so much piracy and cast pirates themselves as working-class heroes challenging the various hierarchies of the British Empire during its most craven period, when it was armed with the asiento granting monopoly privileges to supply the Spanish Empire with enslaved labor. Pirates were clearly challenging this evil empire, and doing so with diverse and meritorious crews, but pirates were also pirates: practical, opportunistic, violent. Pirates were not roving abolitionists. While it is true that the large crews of Edward Thatch or Thache, the notorious Blackbeard, might have been as much as thirty percent African at one time, it is also true that when he captured the French slaver La Concorde in November of 1717 with 455 enslaved Africans in its hold he returned the vast majority to its deposed captain for transport back to the slave market in Martinque. La Concorde became his flagship briefly, renamed The Queen Anne’s Revenge: slave ships were popular among pirates as their architecture suited piratical purposes perfectly, but liberating human cargoes was not their business. In the words of David Cordingly, “pirates shared the same prejudices as other white men in the Western world. They regarded black slaves as commodities to be bought and sold, and they used them as slaves onboard their ships for the hard and menial jobs: working pumps, going ashore for food and water, washing and cleaning…” (Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates, 34). They were also disarmed, just like the Real Pirates mural figures.
Anchor from the Queen Anne’s Revenge, whose wreck was discovered in 1996. The Queen Anne’s Revenge Project is an absolutely wonderful site, where discoveries, treasures, and topics are discussed regularly relative to the ship in particular and piracy in general.
So that brings us, and me, to the Real Pirates Museum in Salem. Real Pirates is the sister museum of the Whydah Pirate Museum on Cape Cod: both are based on the sensational underwater archeological discovery of the wreck of the Whydah, another slaver turned pirate flagship, off the eastern coast of the Cape in 1984 by Barry Clifford. I’ve always heard that the Whydah is the only authenticated pirate shipwreck, but I believe that the Queen Anne’s Revenge has since been authenticated as well? In any case, the Whydah Gally was captured in the Caribbean by Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy and his crew on her maiden voyage in 1716 and utilized to capture a succession of prizes until she ran aground off Wellfleet in the following year. Bellamy perished along with most of his crew, a young, dashing, democratic Robin Hood who seems to have acquired the most romantic reputation of any Golden Age pirate because of his storied relationship with a Cape girl, Maria/Mary/Mehitable Hallett, who may or may not have existed (If she did exist, she was certainly not named Maria, a very Catholic name in very Protestant Massachusetts). Here is how the project manager of Real Pirates described these two in his submissions to the Salem Public Art Commission, as their murals were going to be, and are, very prominent:
Sam Bellamy, known as the “Robin Hood” of pirates, who had suffered as a common sailor, and was determined to assert his inherent human right to organize with others of similar conviction to form his own nation that would oppose by force other nations that had derived their wealth from the sale of human beings and from the murder and exploitation of the common person.
Maria Hallett, who as a single mother was thrown out of her home, banished from civilization and then accused of being a witch and yet never gave up her dignity or her dream of true love and salvation.
Much of these characterizations seem to be made up of whole cloth, and when I read them, I really didn’t want to visit a museum pushing romance over reality: even if “Maria Hallett” existed, or is a composite of several women who existed, how in the world can one know that she never gave up her dignity or her dream of true love and salvation (salvation?)? But I’m really upset about the park, so I knew I was going to write more, and if I was going to write more I knew I might end up criticizing the museum because of these over-the-top, thoroughly anachronistic statements of egalitarianism, dignity and love rather than its own exhibits, which is not fair. So off I went to see the Real Pirates. Before I left, I wanted to check the photography policy, so I went to the website, and there I saw something very interesting: I was not headed for merely a pirate experience, but a pirate and witch experience!
This is not the pitch on Cape Cod, I can assure you: this is a special Salem pitch. And obviously this is why there’s so much emphasis on Maria Hallett, who became known as the “Witch of Eastham” over her long legendary career. I quickly became more fixated on this than the “Pirates as Social Justice Warriors” claim, especially as I did not see over-reach in that area in the exhibit’s interpretation. It was disappointing, because my experience there was primarily positive: the staff was friendly and informative, it’s a very well-designed space, there’s a good introduction to the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and there are authentic artifacts from the Whydah. When you have Real Pirates and real treasure why feature a fake witch? I think this focus is a mistake, although to its credit, the exhibition does present all the Maria theories rather than the “fact” of her existence. I shook that fictional witch off, because I was enjoying my conversation with one of Real Pirates’ managers, who is a graduate of our MA program at Salem State where she wrote her thesis on pirates! She was full of plans and ideas, for both interpretation within the museum and engagement outside: she seemed to have put more substantive thought into how to feature and honor Charlotte Forten than most people associated with the City of Salem, even though that is not her job. (I still think it’s a stretch, and an uncomfortable one at that, but go for it) And then I got distracted by the nautical instruments displayed, as there’s a whole chapter on them in my book: I thought they were rather boring to write about actually but now I don’t seem to be able to get enough navigational dividers! That’s the key: the authentic objects. Historical authenticity is sadly at a premium in touristy Salem, and the Real Pirates Museum can distinguish itself by keeping it real.
A REAL Anchor.
April 16th, 2022 at 3:54 am
Are you familiar with New England Press award winning journalist, Joshua Blair Delaney? He’s from Eastham and has a Masters in History from Brown University. He wrote for Cape Cod Voice magazine. He’s an avid lover of searching for artifacts on Cape Cod beaches and haunting dusty old libraries. He wrote a historical fiction published in 2011 titled, “Pieces of Eight: Piracy, Witchcraft & the Great Spirit of Colonial Cape Cod”. The ending pages of the novel hold historical notes and timeline. Makes me wonder if Real Pirates sells that book in their gift shop.
I saw the author speak about the book and his interest in the subject of the Sam Bellamy-Maria Hallet legend came about from his father who use to tell the tale quite frequently around the campfire on the beaches of Truro and Wellfleet when he and his brother were growing up. According to his research there are numerous tales from (imaginative?) Cape Codders that the villagers at the time thought Maria Hallett was a witch. Sam Bellamy left her heartbroken, alone, and pregnant to go search for treasure. When townsfolk found out about her baby who later died by choking on a piece of hay, she was persecuted and exiled to Wellfleet where her ghost is said to haunt to this very day.
April 16th, 2022 at 7:12 am
I’m not–will check it out! Yes, it’s an old Cape Cod legend for sure. Will likely never go away.
April 16th, 2022 at 5:27 am
Love your scholarship and principled stance on this Donna. I have two small points of disagreement: Maria pronounced Mariah (as in Carey) specifically to differentiate the name from papists is an old time Yankee name. Witness my own Aunt ‘Ria, (pronounced ‘Riah) a lifelong Maine Yankee. Only long after she died did I discover her name was actually Maria. The Hallets are still very much a presence in Yarmouthport on Cape Cod; they think Maria existed. I am sure there is a kernel of truth to her story. Thank you so much for bringing this extremely hinky use of public property as a billboard and entryway to advertise “a museum” that has zero to do with Salem. I wonder what the Black Historical community thinks of hijacking a park honoring an abolitionist, feminist intellectual to shill tickets for seagoing thieves? Speaking of pirates…
April 16th, 2022 at 7:10 am
Good point about Mariah, Anne. Well, a kernel of truth is not really enough for me, IMHO, but yes, the key public problem is the park. I’d really like to see someone in our city government address it, but so far crickets.
April 16th, 2022 at 10:21 am
Donna, thanks for your thoughtfulness, open-mindedness, and for following up on this topic by taking the time and effort to do real reportage. It’s very refreshing. You may at some point get a friendly email, say from someone at Destination Salem, but everything that has happened with the park and the museum was decided upon long ago, and City Hall is focused on other things. It’s simply one more example of how the city seems to place commercial interests at the center of what is supposed to be civic decision-making. Does anyone think for one moment that they chose that spot and designed and built the park to benefit Salem residents and visitors, and only then realized the commercial benefits they had bestowed on neighboring properties (all paid for with public money)? Somehow the tail always seems to end up wagging the dog. This is not a criticism of the museum per se; my guess is that they’re innocent of these dynamics. The bar for what is billed as “history” in this city is very low, as you know — just enough facts to wrap the bunkum around. From this post of yours it seems the museum is at any rate above the usual in this regard.
April 16th, 2022 at 10:27 am
Thanks Si! It’s frustrating to go through the SRA minutes from last summer: no one expressed a single concern for the impact that this development would have on the park. I feel bad; I wish I had been more aware, but I was kind of stuck in the 16th century at that time! Very disappointing. The Real Pirates people are very nice, and very aware of where they are: I still don’t think it’s a good fit but I think they have good intentions.
April 16th, 2022 at 6:08 pm
Donna — agree, it’s frustrating when no one raises their voice. But even if they do, in my experience, the result is usually the same. The outcomes all seem to have been settled beforehand. I’ve attended city committee meetings where there were five times as many commenters against as those in favor, and the matter passes unanimously without any substantive discussion of the issues commenters have raised. I’ve been to meetings where a couple of committee members themselves seemed completely unconvinced about the issue before them, and then the roll is called and it passes unanimously. The meetings seem to be little more than political theater. Frustrating indeed.
April 16th, 2022 at 10:30 am
Always impressed with your thorough historical research and the way you organize your presentation, DAVS. When I was researching my two P’town
pictorial books, I met Pat Hallett, a life-long resident.
April 16th, 2022 at 10:47 am
Titles of your books? Would love to see them, maybe I already have! Thank you so much for your compliments: I really appreciate them, especially re organization. One of the major reasons I started blogging was to improve the ease and accessibility of my writing: academic training can often be an obstacle to communication!
April 16th, 2022 at 10:56 am
I’ve always been a bit suspicious of attempts to turn Golden Age pirates into democrats. Even in Capt. Johnson’s book, there’s enough evidence that pirate ships ran more like mobs, with individual strong men often able to dictate policy. And then there was a book with a title something like “The Invisible Hook,” which tried to make these pirates out to be rational economic actors . . . while leaving out of the picture the economic irrationality of their career choices. Too often, we see what we want to see.
I’ve been to the P’town museum. It’s a decent enough place: bits of history with some sensationalism. Just the fact that they had authenticated the wreck and brought up artifacts is enough for me. I believe the ID of the Queen Anne’s Revenge wreck, which happened many years after the Whydah was identified, has held up, while the attempt to identify Cast. Kidd’s Adventure Galley in Madagascar was not so successful.
April 16th, 2022 at 11:35 am
I feel the same way: if you’ve got artifacts, why make stuff up? I really dug into the historiography last week: it’s a bit outside my teaching fields so never really had to before. Pretty dynamic field for sure! Despite the egalitarian characterizations, it’s impossible to transform pirates into abolitionists.
April 16th, 2022 at 3:57 pm
I can’t tell from their website, and no-one answers the phone, is it free or discounted admission for Salem residents?
April 17th, 2022 at 5:16 am
I don’t think so; I paid the full admission.
April 16th, 2022 at 7:30 pm
You seem to have taken an evenhanded approach to your investigation. Certainly they can’t be faulted for taking advantage of the situation, especially since they had the blessing of the “powers that be.” Even so, their claim of abolitionist pirates is spurious and should not have been included in their petition for the murals.