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TheBrethren orBrethren of the Coast were a loose coalition ofpirates andbuccaneers that were active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in theAtlantic Ocean,Caribbean Sea, andGulf of Mexico. They mostly operated in two locations, the island ofTortuga off the coast ofHaiti and in the city ofPort Royal on the island ofJamaica.[1]
The Brethren were a syndicate of captains withletters of marque and reprisal who regulated theirprivateering enterprises within the community of privateers and with their outside benefactors. They were primarily private individual merchant mariners of Protestant background, usually of English and French origin.[2]
They were originally refugees who settled inHispaniola,[2][3] mostlyFrenchHuguenots and British Protestants.[4] They would supply wares to visiting ships in exchange for guns and ammunition,[2] an activity which led to the Spanish driving them out. These former refugees lived in something akin to a republic.[5] Despite their origins their ranks swelled as they were joined by other adventurers of various nationalities, includingSpaniards,African sailors, as well as escapedslaves andoutlaws of various sovereigns.[1]
The English had their heyday around the 1650s, when they seizedTortuga from theSpanish. These privateers were issued letters of marque to defend the island from the Spanish[2] and raid Catholic French and Spanish shipping.[6]
Their decline can be attributed to various factors. The peace betweenWilliam of Orange and Spain[5] decreased the incentive in privateering. TheTreaty of Madrid (1670) resulted in the English renouncing privateering in the Caribbean and Jamaica being recognised as an English possession by the Spanish crown.[7][8] In addition the demographic changes which featured a rise in slave labor in the Caribbean islands was a compounding factor.[9] Most maritime families moved to the mainland colonies of the future United States or to their home countries.[9] A few, unable to compete effectively with slave labor, enamored of easy riches, or out of angst continued to maintain the Brethren of the Coasts as a purely criminal organization which preyed upon all civilian maritime shipping without the legal endorsement of any government. This second era of the Brethren began the so-calledGolden Age of Piracy andbrigandage which affected the Caribbean until socioeconomic and military changes of the late 17th and early 18th century finally caused its decline. Many pirates made their journeys there, and one of the most famous wasAlexandre Exquemelin.
In keeping with their Protestant and mostlycommon-law heritage, the Brethren were governed bycodes of conduct that favored legislative decision-making, hierarchical command authority, individual rights, and equitable division of revenues.Henry Morgan, one of the most well-known Brethren, is usually credited with codifying its organization.[5]
A fictionalized, romanticized version ofthe Brethren was featured inDisney'sPirates of the Caribbean franchise.
