Benjamin Hornigold and the Golden Age of Piracy
This paper examines Benjamin Hornigold and the Pirate Republic of Nassau as a window into power, legality, and survival in the early eighteenth-century Atlantic world, arguing that the Golden Age of Piracy emerged from imperial warfare, devastating hurricanes, and the collapse of colonial governance in the Caribbean. Moving beyond romanticized portrayals of pirates as mere outlaws, it shows how pirate crews operated within blurred boundaries between crime and empire, while experimenting with collective decision-making, elected leadership, and shared profits in ways that anticipated later democratic and labor movements. At the same time, piracy endures as a compelling subject because it represents one of the era’s most visible forms of anti-colonial resistance: sailors who refused hierarchy, disrupted imperial trade, and forged alternative systems of order in spaces abandoned by the state. Their legacy exists in the tension between brutality and liberation, between historical record and mythmaking, where terrifying figures of the sea become unlikely symbols of autonomy and rebellion.
How Media Shaped the Boston Massacre
This paper examines the Boston Massacre (March 5th, 1770), highlighting how conflicting eyewitness accounts, propagandistic imagery, and the trials of Captain Preston and his soldiers shaped public memory of the event. By analyzing media portrayals, political agendas, and the role of town meetings in framing the story, the paper argues that the Boston Massacre reveals the enduring power of media efforts to transform contested facts into mobilizing symbols of resistance, control, and identity.
Latin American Independence in the wake of The Napoleonic Wars
This paper argues that Napoleon’s wars destabilized the Iberian empires and inadvertently sparked Latin American independence. By forcing the Portuguese court to Brazil and toppling Spain’s monarchy, he created power vacuums that empowered juntas and revolutionary leaders like Bolívar and San Martín. The result was a wave of independence movements that reshaped Latin America and left enduring legacies of nationalism and contested governance.
Differentiating Slaveries in the Americas: Uncovering Regional Systems and the Multiplicity of Enslaved Experience
This paper explores the idea that slavery in the Americas was not a single, uniform institution but rather a collection of diverse and regionally distinct “slaveries.” While the U.S. memory often focuses the antebellum South, the essay emphasizes that systems of bondage varied widely. By recognizing these differences, the essay argues for a more nuanced understanding of slavery’s legacies, one that honors the varied struggles of the enslaved.