A revelation of America's War of Independence, a sweeping tale of maritime rebel-entrepreneurs bent on personal profit as well as national freedom. Privateers were legalized pirates empowered by the Continental Congress to raid and plunder, at their own considerable risk, as much enemy trade as they could successfully haul back to America's shores. Patton writes how privateering engaged all levels of Revolutionary life, from the dockyards to the assembly halls; how it gave rise to an often cutthroat network of agents who sold captured goods and sparked wild speculation in purchased shares in privateer ventures, enabling sailors to make more money in a month than they might otherwise earn in a year; and how they turned their seafaring talents to the slave trade. Vast fortunes made through privateering survive to this day, among them those of the Peabodys, Cabots, and Lowells of Massachusetts, and the Derbys and Browns of Rhode Island.--From publisher description.