{"product_id":"2940012381880","title":"The Real Captain Kidd - A Vindication","description":"Interesting and informative book relating to the voyages of Captain William Kidd and his crew, and his piracy trials at the Old Bailey. Did Captain Kidd get a bum deal? (348 pages)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Publisher has copy-edited this book to improve the formatting, style and accuracy of the text to make it readable. This did not involve changing the substance of the text.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContents:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1 The Voyage of the \"Adventure Galley\"\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2 Kidd's Return Home\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3 The Genesis of the Arch Pirate Myth\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4 Kidd's First Trial at the Old Bailey\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5 The Subsequent Trial of Kidd and His Crew for Piracy\u003cbr\u003eChapter 6 Kidd's End\u003cbr\u003eAppendices A to E\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcerpts:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e.....IT is to be feared that honest and well-meaning men have not infrequently incurred the odium of posterity, not so much by reason of any enormities of which they have themselves been guilty, as because it has been their misfortune to be set to impossible tasks by employers or comrades, to whom they have been only too faithful. Few, if any, of such men have less deserved their fate than Captain Kidd, one of the unluckiest men that ever lived, who left this world on Friday the 23d of May, 1701, after woeful experiences at sea of the doings of an unruly crew, and on shore of the schemings of unscrupulous politicians and lawyers at Boston, Newgate, the Old Bailey, and the Execution Dock at Wapping.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e.....IF any of the great personages involved in Kidd's case took the trouble to look into the voluminous papers relating to it, which had been sent over to England by Bellamont for presentation to Parliament, they must at once have realized that Kidd's prosecution was attended with great difficulties. Notwithstanding the public prejudice which had been aroused against him, and the fact that he was not only a Scotchman, but also a Colonial, they could hardly have believed that an English jury could be asked with safety to convict him of piracy, on any of the grounds on which Bellamont had committed him to gaol at Boston, either because he had been described by the Lords Justices as a notorious pirate or because he was thought to look guilty, or because during his examination he had in Bellamont's opinion seemed at one time unduly cheerful, and at another unduly grave, or even because some one else had been so impertinent as to ask prematurely for the return of a bond. Kidd's own simple narrative, which it is impossible to doubt that some of them must have read with interest, if not with shame, supported as it was by the depositions of such of his crew as had remained faithful to him, contained no inherent improbabilities, but bore the impress of truth, and satisfactorily accounted for his detention at Madagascar. No flaw was apparent in either of the French passes, which he had taken with his prizes, and which were included amongst the papers sent over by Bellamont. It is difficult to believe that any one who read them failed to come to the same conclusion that Bellamont had expressed, that they would justify the seizure of the two vessels to which they related. The sole foundation for the suspicions that attached to Kidd, apart from his unfortunate and disreputable connection with Lord Chancellor Somers, and other unpopular members of the Ministry, was the vague allegation made some years before by the East India Company, that \"they had received some information from their factories that he had committed several acts of piracy, particularly in seizing the Quedagh Merchant.\" From the papers presented to Parliament it seemed now clear that his capture of that ship was justified; and that he was on his way home with her to New England with the object of getting her adjudicated a lawful prize, when his men had gone over to Culliford, and prevented him from carrying her to Boston. As one at least of the adventurers, Orford, the late","brand":"Digital Text Publishing Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182375125232,"sku":"2940012381880","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012381880_p0.jpg?v=1763568128","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012381880","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}