Charles Johnson (Author)

Captain Charles Johnson is the author of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates from 1724, but his identity remains a mystery. There are no records whatsoever for a captain of this name, and for a long time it was assumed that Captain Charles Johnson was a pseudonym of the English writer Daniel Defoe . Although the work is often still carried under the name Defoes, its authorship is now largely disproved in historical and literary studies. The work significantly influenced the popular image of the pirate and is one of the most cited sources in the biographies of many contemporary pirates.

The search for identity

Who Johnson really was has not yet been clarified. He shows a knowledge of the language and life of seafarers that suggests he is a true captain, but he may as well be a pseudonymous writer. In this case, the name was well chosen, echoing the playwright Charles Johnson, who in 1712 an unsuccessful play called The successful pirate ( The Successful Pyrate brought) to the performance. In it the career of Henry Avery was glorified; it sparked a minor scandal for extolling a criminal. As a result, a number of authors stood out with biographies and lists of criminals, including, for example, muggers and prostitutes . According to this reading, the alleged Charles Johnson and his pirate directory took part in the flourishing business of criminal biographies. In 1934 the American literary scholar and Defoe specialist John Robert Moore announced his theory that Johnson was in fact the English writer Daniel Defoe. He eventually published Defoe in the Pillory and Other Studies . In it, he compared the style and content of General History with Defoe's work and noted that Defoe's regular reflections on moral issues often appear in the same form and that the latter has written several works about pirates. Moore's study and reputation as a Defoe specialist were so compelling that most libraries now cataloged General History under Defoe's name. In 1988, however, this theory was attacked by scientists PN Furbank and WR Owen, who argue that there is no documented evidence linking Johnson to Defoe and that discrepancies can be found between General History and Defoe's other works.

The general history

The book was published in two volumes. The first volume deals mainly with the pirates of the early 18th century, such as Henry Avery, James Martel , Blackbeard , Stede Bonnet , Edward England , Charles Vane , “Calico Jack” Rackham , Mary Read , Anne Bonny , Howell Davis , “Black Bart “Roberts , Thomas Anstis , Richard Worley , George Lowther , Edward Low , John Evans , Francis Spriggs , John Smith , John Gow , and Roche Braziliano . In doing so, Johnson allegedly adheres to the existing sources, mostly Admiralty court files, logbooks and some interviews. It is no longer possible to understand where the line between fact and fiction runs. For example, Johnson describes in the biography of the already heavily exaggerated Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard , a battle with the warship HMS Scarborough, which does not appear in the Scarborough's logbook at all.

The first publisher, Charles Rivington, stressed the fact that the listing also included stories about " the remarkable deeds and adventures of the two female pirates, Mary Read and Anne Bonny ". A second edition, extensively expanded and very likely compiled from other sources, came out within a few months. A German and a Dutch translation followed. These versions went far beyond the slipperiness of the “ amazon pirate” stories.

The second volume covered the exploits of their pirate predecessors decades earlier, such as Thomas Tew , William Kidd , John Bowen , John Halsey , Thomas White , Thomas Howard , David Williams , Samuel Burgess , Nathaniel North , Christopher Condent , Samuel Bellamy, and William Fly . Here the truth is stretched a little further. The author even includes the biographies of three people who may be entirely fictional, such as Captains James Misson , Lewis and Cornelius. The description of the pirate state Libertatia is also pure fiction.

The decorations and the certainly fictional stories, however, question the historical accuracy of the entire work. Nonetheless, the book had a major impact on popular beliefs about piracy and provided sample biographies for many pirates who are still known today.

literature

• Captain Charles Johnson: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates , The Lyons Press 2002, ISBN 1-58574-558-8 (English, reproduction of the original edition from 1724, second volume 1728. German: comprehensive history of robberies and murders of the notorious pirates . Robinson-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1982, ISBN 3-88592-009-3 ) - also at: Conway Maritime Press Ltd; Edition: New Ed (July 15, 2002), 384 pages - ISBN 0-85177-919-0 .
• Helge Meves (Ed.): Daniel Defoe. Libertalia. The utopian pirate republic , translated from the English by David Meienreis and Arne Braun. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95757-000-0 .
• Joan Druett: She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.
• Robert Bohn : The pirates. 2nd Edition. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-48027-6 .
• John Robert Moore: Defoe in the Pillory and Other Studies, Bloomington 1939 (title translated: Defoe am Pillory and Other Studies)
• PN Furbank and WR Owens: The Canonization of Daniel Defoe. New Haven, Conn .: Yale University Press 1988.
• Arne Bialuschewski: Daniel Defoe, Nathaniel Mist and the pirates. A study on the authorship and genesis of the General History of the Pyrates, Kiel 1999.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Daniel Defoe - alias Captain Charles Johnson ( Memento December 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). A comparison between Defoe and Johnson.
2. ↑ Bialuschewski, Daniel Defoe, Nathaniel Mist und die Seeräuber, p. 6
3. ^ Robert Dryden, Hillyer College, University of Hartford. "The Successful Pyrate. A play. As it is acted at the Theater-Royal in Drury-Lane. "The Literary Encyclopedia. 23 Oct 2006. The Literary Dictionary Company. 3 June 2007.
4. ^ [1] Uwe Böker , The business with crime: Publications about the London underworld
5. ↑ Furbank / Owen, Canonisation of Daniel Defoe, pp. 100-113
6. ^ The liberal thoughts of the privateers in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung of March 8, 2015, page 50

swell

This article is based on the articles en: Charles Johnson (pirate biographer) and en: A General History of the Pyrates