Transcript
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Katy Charlewood (2:11)
Hello delicious friends, and welcome to who did what Now? The History podcast. That's not your history class with me, your host, Katy Charlewood, history harlot and reader of books. And this is part two of two, the second half, if you will, of the Tale of Captain Morgan, the man, not the Rum, right? Speaking of the Rum. I was told this week that it's technically not rum. It's actually more like a bourbon because it's made with, like, mash or whatever. I. I have to look that up because I didn't have time. So I am gonna look up this whole thing because I was like, is it not rum? But, like, I. I used to do a joke, actually, about. About Captain Morgan, about Captain Jack Sparrow being, like, drinking it. I was, like, drinking it and then catching. So he's, like, catches the bottle, brings it down, takes one look at it with an outstretched arm and goes, captain Morgan. I don't like the competition. And then smashes it on the ground. But yes, to everyone. To everyone who was kind enough to contact me and let me know that there is a town called Jamaica in New York and that's where the sorting office is, and that my post wasn't going to the country of Jamaica. Thank you. Thank you. Geography clearly not my strong point. Nobody's. Nobody's coming to me for geographic. Geographic questions. Right. Strangely good orienteering, though. I can follow a map. Like, it's just instructions, though, innit? Like, you're just following instructions on a map, really. This is a river, this is a road. If you need. You know, you just recognize places and follow it like an IKEA instruction manual. Like, if you ever need anyone to help you build IKEA for Najar, I know a gal. It's me. I'm your gal. If you're thinking, jeez, this episode came out a wee bit early. Yes, it did. There is nothing I hate more. Well, no, there's many things I hate more, like bigotry. But I generally quite dislike having to wait for a part two of anything because I am genuinely impatient. So I always wanted to get the part two out sooner. I just physically did not have the time to get this done. Like, I am. I am literally at my kitchen table after packing bags because I'm heading to Dublin first thing in the morning because I'm taking the kids and my mum to go see the lights at Dublin Zoo and to go to my son. I'm taking him to a CG5 consult. So, like, it's all go. I was working today. We did this. We're gonna be going in the morning. It's. It's all go. So. So, like, I don't even know if I'm gonna be back home in time to record the next episode. So it's probably gonna be somewhere between 12 and 24 hours later than it should be. But I have it written. I just have to be able to record it. But I do need to get to sleep tonight, so this needs to be done now. But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, katie, quit your jibber jabber and fact me. In fact you, I will. Because all the sources were listed in the previous episode. So all that's left to say is. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let's begin the tale of Captain Henry Morgan. Again, the pirate, not the rum. So time to Cliff Notes catch up. Henry Morgan, actually, Harry Morgan was Welsh. He moved to Bristol, ended up in the West Indies. Still started off as a soldier for Britain in the Anglo Spanish War. One of many, many. And he may or may not have been an indentured servant for a time. So he joins a pirate crew, becomes a captain, gaining a no fucking around reputation, becomes a privateer, marries his cousin, becomes an admiral and commits blatant acts of illegal piracy. After which he's in Jamaica, making his buddy, the deputy Governor, Thomas Muddyford, really fucking nervous. Modiford. See, he had given Henry Morgan a letter of marque that granted him permission to attack Spanish ships, but not any Spanish territories. So not on land. Right? You can plunder and pillage as long as you're on the water, but you cannot do it on land. Just kind of like in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Davy Jones could not set foot on land, okay? He could not do that. Just like Captain Morgan could not attack on land, okay? So it used to be, like I said in the previous episode, it used to be that you could attack settlements, right? And that would be fine. But then they basically attacked a settlement a little too hard and King Charles II went, no, don't do that. No, because, like, the outrage even amongst, like, the court and everything, because of just how violent and debauched the whole thing was. So they were like, oh, no, we can't be doing that though. So so basically he was like, the letter of mark covers these specific things. And so Captain Morgan performed a legal act of piracy. Now, here's the thing. The amount of men, and it is men, it is men, specifically who have been in my comment section this week on, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, who keep arguing on behalf of Captain Henry Morgan, as if Captain Henry Morgan did not do the very things that I said he was doing. And one, they're wrong. And two, and two, the level of confidence one has to have to argue with a historian over a topic that they have quite aggressively researched, fact checked. Because listen, I'm not a pirate historian, okay? There are pirate Historians, just like there are Viking historians. They're not called Viking historians, they're called something else. Like they are like medieval Norse or whatever it is, right? Like there are historians, we all focus on like our own special topics. Like you have Dr. Kate Lister, who is a sex historian as is. I think Dr. Carolyn west might be as well. And obviously Dr. Esme Louise James, she's also a sex historian. These people exist in these fields. I don't know why I chose sex historians specifically, but I know them well and so that seems to be the better option. So pirate historians, I am not one of those. I am a historian who covers misinformation and propaganda in history from typically the early modern period upwards. So bullshit in history that has been presented as not bullshit. Really? Really, that's my gig. So when I see something and I see say for example, how Henry Morgan was portrayed as opposed to what he did, that I can see that. And I work from there. So I've had like actual pirate historians go on and go, oh no, she's right by the way. Like she is though, good job. Because I fact check stuff. I, I do my research, lads. I don't mean to be a dick about it. And like, and if I get something wrong, Grant, I, I can deal with that. I'll correct it at some point. But like, yeah, yeah, accountability, yeah, but make sure I'm wrong before you try and correct me. Cuz, like what? The audacity. Like you're not an expert on piracy, just cuz you used to burn DVDs, man. I understand we really loved Limewire and Napster back in the day, but you really need to stop. But yeah, I get back to this. Sorry for the sidebar, but it was just like really? Like why are you arguing this? Like, like somebody got mad because I used the term war criminal and they were just like, war criminals didn't exist yet. And I'm like, I assure you they did. Just because the terminology didn't exist doesn't mean that the act didn't. Right, that like get over it. But anyway, back to Captain Morgan. The attack on Portobello was an act of piracy. And it was causing a wee bit of a problem for Modiford because Morgan was his number one privateer. Like he was very clear about this. This was his number one guy and he's out there doing illegal shit. And as such he's guilty by association. So Thomas Mitaford, he was a royalist, right? He had fought on the side of King Charles the First during the English Civil War. Now this Meant that he fought against Cromwell and his Parliamentarians, but after his military service ended, he, like, hightailed it to Barbados where he owned a plantation, right? And while he's in Barbados, he becomes a man of influence and standing. Now, remember, none of these. None of these are technically good people, because you can't own a person and be like, I'm a good guy. No. So he was made a colonel of the regiment in Barbados. And so being a royalist was. When parliamentary forces demanded the surrender of Barbados, he fought for it, right? He was like, no. Which was, you know, okay for a while. But then when Charles the First was beheaded and the Royalists lost the Battle of Worcester, his loyalties started to shift a wee bit. Probably because he liked having his head attached to his body. But he ends up entering secret negotiations. It's a wee bit sleeker, innit? Right? He enters these secret negotiations with the Roundheads and joined them by taking his regiment with him. Now he gets made governor of Barbados, but in a. In a shocking twist, everybody hates him, you know, probably because he's a fucking tongue coat. So when eventually the monarchy is restored and the Restoration. Because, yeah, of course, it's the. The mon monarchy's restored in the Restoration. That was really clever right in there, wasn't it? That was really good on my part. When Charles II takes the throne, Barbados gets a new governor and Modiford's out on his arse. He managed to not piss everybody off because he does get the job of deputy Governor of Jamaica, right? So he's got. He's got that. So skip forward to now. And he is stressing because Captain Morgan has plundered the shit out of a major city on the Spanish Main. Like, it's not. Like it was a wee town and this could be swept under the rug. Like, it's not as if he can cover this up and hide it. No, no, no, no. This is big news and it is absolutely going to reach the ears of the King. So the governor wants to get ahead of the game. What's that misinformation, you say? Creating the narrative, you say. What? Who would know anything about that? You say. Anyhow, like, he writes to England to exonerate himself, right? He's saying that he didn't sanction or approve the assault on Portobello and that his letter of marque only covered attacks at sea. Only like, he is totally trying to save his arse at this point. So he's doing that and he's trying to. Like, I had no knowledge this was without my consent. Nothing to do with me, by the way. That being said. That being said, he's like, the Caribbean is, like, super treacherous and dangerous. Like, he tries to paint it as, like, this big, scary, like, very, like, lawless place. Like, it's very dangerous. And. And everybody's watching their back at all times. And that the Spanish were planning to attack Jamaica. And because they were planning to attack Jamaica, he was just trying to get ahead of it because of those dastardly Spaniards. So Modiford is telling England that Captain Morgan wasn't doing any of that under his orders, but he was preemptively striking the enemy to protect British territory. So effectively, effectively, the blame is being shifted to the Spanish. Like, and it helps, you know that they have been at war quite a few times because you've got, like, one Anglo Spanish War, and then you have another Anglo Spanish War. Like, there's a lot of Anglo Spanish wars happening. That being said, when is the Anglo not at war? You know what I mean? At this point, we're at war with Christmas. Sorry, I can't help myself. I just love the fact as well that he's trying to turn around and go, I had no knowledge of this. But he was doing the right thing, though, because those. Those Spanish over there. Ooh. What's interesting, though, out of all the antagonizing and attacking that's happening, like, during this, very little of the attacking, like, the going on the offense is by the Spanish. Like, I'm not here to justify any colonial power by any stretch of the imagination, but, like, they're just kind of.
