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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs Hardback - 2007

by Joseph Gibbs

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Reader reviews for Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs

From the publisher

A chronicle of murders, mutiny, and mayhem carried out by a real pirate of the Caribbean

Dead men tell no tales, or so the pirate maxim goes. But shortly before execution for mutiny and murder in 1831, the enigmatic pirate Charles Gibbs recounted the infamous crimes of his harrowing life at sea in a self-aggrandizing series of "confessions." Wildly popular reading among nineteenth-century audiences, such criminal confessions were peppered with the romanticized mythology that informs pirate lore to this day. Author Joseph Gibbs takes up the task of separating fact from fiction to explicate the true story of Charles Gibbs--an alias for James Jeffers (1798-1831) of Newport, Rhode Island--in an investigation that reveals a life as riveting as the legend it replaces.

Jeffers was the child of a Revolutionary War privateer captain with his own history of "rough work." Following his father into the privateer trade on behalf of Latin American insurgents, he soon turned to outright piracy, sailing from Cuban ports to wreak havoc in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico aboard a series of commandeered schooners. Along the way, he admittedly had a hand in the taking of dozens of ships and hundreds of lives.

Stripping away 170 years of embellishment, Joseph Gibbs maps the still shockingly violent saga of James Jeffers across the seas and in the process challenges and discredits much of the pirate's mythology. He dismisses, for example, Jeffers' claims of War of 1812 heroism, and shows how his confessions were augmented and distorted by generations of writers fascinated by the man's story.

The author also recounts Jeffers's well-documented role in the infamous mutiny and murders in 1830 aboard the brig Vineyard while the vessel was carrying a load of Mexican silver. Arrested within days of setting foot on the New York shore, the case against Jeffers and accomplice Thomas Wansley culminated in a sensational trial which ended in their subsequent executions by hanging on Ellis Island.

In addition to recounting the life of a ruthless pirate, Dead Men Tell No Tales reconstructs the larger story of American piracy and privateering in the early nineteenth century and illustrates the role of American and European adventurers in the Latin American wars of liberation. Carefully researched, engagingly written, this book is pirate history at its most credible and readable.

Details

  • Title Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs
  • Author Joseph Gibbs
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition First Printing
  • Pages 232
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.A.
  • Publication date 2007-09-19
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Maps, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9781570036934 / 1570036934
  • Weight 1.01 lbs (0.46 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.22 x 6.38 x 0.79 in (23.42 x 16.21 x 2.01 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 19th Century
  • Category Biography / Autobiography
  • Library of Congress subjects Gibbs, Charles, Pirates - United States
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2007007329
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

About the author

Formerly a reporter and editor on several Massachusetts newspapers, Joseph Gibbs holds a doctorate in policy and communication from Boston University. The author of Gorbachev's Glasnost and Three Years in the Bloody Eleventh, he is a professor of mass communication at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime...
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime History)

by Joseph Gibbs

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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs

by Joseph Gibbs

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  • Hardback
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Dead Men Tell No Tales : The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs

Dead Men Tell No Tales : The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs

by Joseph Gibbs

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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime...
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime History)

by Gibbs, Joseph

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Dead Men Tell No Tales : The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs
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Dead Men Tell No Tales : The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs

by Still, William N., Gibbs, Joseph

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University of South Carolina Press. Used - Good. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
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Dead Men Tell No Tales : The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs
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Dead Men Tell No Tales : The Lives and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs

by Still, William N., Gibbs, Joseph

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781570036934 / 1570036934
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University of South Carolina Press. Used - Good. Former library copy. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime...
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime History)

by Gibbs, Joseph

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  • Hardback
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Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781570036934 / 1570036934
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University of South Carolina Press, 20/08/2007. hardcover. Used: Good. 6.38x0.79x9.22. Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime...
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Dead Men Tell No Tales: The Life and Legends of the Pirate Charles Gibbs (Studies in Maritime History)

by Gibbs, Joseph

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  • Hardback
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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9781570036934 / 1570036934
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Dead Men Tell No Tales
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Dead Men Tell No Tales

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