Saturday, January 16, 2016

Pirate Democracies And The Second Amendment

I am currently reading my way through Under The Black Flag, The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly and I wanted to share some things I found interesting from chapter 5 having to do with the typical way pirates organized themselves.

First, they were democracies. Unlike the crews of other ships, with each person having a vote, pirates elected their captain and the others who held positions of authority. They could also be voted out at any time. The entire crew voted anytime a new destination needed to be chosen. Pirate crews were also typically much larger than what was used on merchant and military ships. Finally, each ship had a set of articles they all had to sign, also agreed to by voting. The document outlined how each person was to be compensated, what payments were made for serious injuries, along with other rules to govern behavior.

In one of the examples of a set of articles that survives, I found it interesting that it included a section that appears to be very close to the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment: "To keep their piece, pistols, and cutlass clean and fit for service." The book doesn't mention it, but it seems to me to be highly likely that a similar provision was common among articles created by all pirate crews.

For me, this helped give some related context to the acknowledgment of the need for the Second Amendment in a country that didn't have a large standing army. A "well-regulated militia" was the bulk of any potential army of the day when called to fight, and for that to be an option the people had to be able to "bear arms" in order to fight when called upon. The thinking is very closely related to the highly regulated pirate ships so they would be equipped to fight when called upon to do so. 

While I think I have always known that the Second Amendment was never meant to give people the right to "bear arms" universally under any circumstances, this pirate reference gives me a better picture of the mindset of the day when it comes to hand-held weapons and getting organized in some "well-regulated" manner when the need to fight arises.

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