God, Gallows & Gold: Christianity and Piracy in Early America

In the formative years of the American colonies, piracy was far more than a maritime nuisance; it was a symbol of lawlessness that threatened the fragile moral and legal frameworks of the Atlantic world. As colonial governments struggled to secure their trade routes and project imperial order, Christian leaders stepped in to frame piracy as not merely a civil crime but a spiritual abomination. This blending of moral theology with judicial punishment played a powerful role in shaping public attitudes toward piracy and in reinforcing the legitimacy of both church and state authority.

Colonial ministers viewed piracy through a theological lens rooted in a Calvinistic worldview, emphasizing human depravity, divine justice, and the necessity of repentance. The pirate was more than a criminal, he was a warning. Execution sermons delivered on the eve of hangings were rich in scriptural allusion and moral exhortation. These sermons functioned as both instruments of public discipline and opportunities for collective reflection. Ministers used the condemned bodies of pirates as moral texts upon which to inscribe broader lessons about sin, grace, and justice.

One of the most emblematic examples of this is Benjamin Colman’s 1726 sermon, It is a Fearful Thing to Fall into the Hands of the Living God, preached to an audience gathered for the execution of condemned pirates in Boston. Colman vividly portrayed piracy as not only criminal rebellion but spiritual defiance, urging listeners to reflect on the pirates’ fate as a solemn warning of God’s judgment. He described the condemned men as those who had “sinned against light and law,” and insisted that their punishment must serve as a moral deterrent to others. Colman’s framing of execution as a sacred act of justice exemplified the close alliance between the pulpit and the gallows.

Cotton Mather, too, frequently used the scaffold to deliver public theological instruction. His 1723 work Useful Remarks. An Essay Upon Remarkables in the Way of Wicked Men, written after the execution of twenty-six pirates in Newport, Rhode Island, details the final confessions of the condemned and weaves their downfall into a broader sermon on the seductions of sin. Mather’s commentary reflects his belief in the instructive power of punishment. He portrayed the pirates as both wicked and pitiable; agents of chaos who, through the grace of public repentance, could serve as instruments of divine instruction. These narratives of crime, confession, and death helped mold public morality and demonstrated the reach of religious authority in colonial society.

The pirates themselves were not without agency in these performances. In many cases, condemned men were allowed to speak before their executions. Their final words, whether scripted or genuine, often included dramatic confessions, quotations from Scripture, and warnings to the crowd. These ritualized confessions were frequently published in pamphlets and broadsides, becoming part of the religious literature of the time. Historian Marcus Rediker, in his study of piracy and execution, notes that these gallows scenes served as “an Atlantic theater of terror and resistance,” a space where imperial authority could be performed and affirmed, and where pirates were cast as sinners turned spectacles of justice.

The use of execution sermons and pirate confessions as moral spectacles served multiple purposes. They acted as public rituals of purification, reinforcing Christian norms and colonial law. They also functioned as warnings to a broader audience, especially young men tempted by the allure of maritime rebellion. By aligning piracy with sin and punishment with divine order, ministers like Colman and Mather sacralized the work of the state and baptized its violence in the language of providence.

The convergence of Christianity and piracy in early America reveals how deeply religion influenced both social values and legal practices. Through sermons, gallows literature, and public executions, colonial ministers recast piracy as a moral parable rather than merely a criminal enterprise. Their preaching turned punishment into public pedagogy, transforming executions into rituals designed to instruct the faithful, affirm communal standards, and reinforce divine justice. By embedding theological meaning into the spectacle of state violence, religious leaders inscribed piracy and its consequences into the moral consciousness of the early republic.

Bibliography

Colman, Benjamin. It Is a Fearful Thing to Fall into the Hands of the Living God: A Sermon Preached to Some Miserable Pirates, July 10, 1726, on the Lord's Day, Before Their Execution. Boston, N.E.: Printed for John Phillips and Thomas Hancock, 1726. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500–1926. Accessed May 23, 2025.

Mather, Cotton. Useful Remarks: An Essay upon Remarkables in the Way of Wicked Men. A Sermon on the Tragical End unto Which the Way of Twenty-Six Pirates Brought Them; at New Port on Rhode-Island, July 19, 1723. With an Account of Their Speeches, Letters, and Actions before Their Execution. New London, CT: Printed and sold by T. Green, 1723. Readex: America’s Historical Imprints.

Rediker, Marcus. “The Pirate and the Gallows.” In Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures, and Transoceanic Exchanges, edited by Jerry H. Bentley, Renate Bridenthal, and Kären Wigen, 324–353. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2007.

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Lauren A. Woods
Doctoral Historian
Curator of The Historian’s Ledger