Torture In The Golden Age of Piracy

Torture In The Golden Age of Piracy

Generally, torture is frowned upon regardless of context or time period. In some special cases, some groups may receive some leniency when dealing with the idea of torture if it is deemed for a good cause (see: terrorist interrogations).

In essence, however, human rights fundamentalists agree that in most --if not all-- cases, torture is unacceptable. And pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy receive no benefit of the doubt. During Captain Henry Morgan's ransacking of Gilbratrar  in 1699, he ended up torturing a man for days in order to find out if he actually had more money than he did. They tied cords to his thumbs and big toes and tied them to stakes that were driven into the ground at a convenient distance. Buccaneers struck these cords with blunt objects until he talked. He never changed his story.

There was another form of torture used by Alexander Exquemelin that involved stringing up victims by their genitals until they spoke. Often times these torture methods leave irreversible damage -- regardless whether the victim confessed or not.

Torture should not be accepted in any form, under any circumstances. It's a savage act that has no place in a civilized society. If we truly believe ourselves to be civilized, then defending torture is a contradictory act in itself. You can go right and left at the same time. You can't go up but also down. And you also cannot consider yourself civilized if you endorse such savage acts.

Pirates such as Alexander