Introduction: the sorrowful tale of Robert Snead -- Part I. Beginnings -- London fog: a brief, confusing history of English piracy law -- The phantom fleet of Porto Principe: privateering and admiralty, 1660-1688 -- "A spot upon our garment": the Red Sea fever in colonial New York, 1691-1698 -- Part II. An empire in crisis -- Voyage of the Fancy, 1696 -- The successful pyrate: a tale of two trials -- The ballad of Henry Every: criminality and print culture in the public sphere -- Part III. Pirate nests -- "Ignorance of their duty": a New Jersey warning, 1697 -- A society of friends: piracy and Quakerism in Pennsylvania -- "A bloody crew of privateers": resistance and right in Rhode Island -- Part IV. Rope's end -- The bonds of slavery: law, letters, and the Resumption Bill of 1701-2 -- From community to periphery: trial and execution in the American colonies, 1705-1730 -- Conclusion: forgotten revolutions
