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Black Meridian: Piracy & Empire
Where Empire Meets Outlaw in the Age of Piracy, History is Written in Blood and SaltBy Sean Patrick Sayers
Length13h 3m
About this audiobook
"Epic, exciting, and highly recommended."
— Midwest Book Review
"A detailed, vivid, and often sobering history of life at sea."
— Independent Book Review
In the wake of empire, the black flag was born.
Black Meridian: Piracy & Empire reveals piracy not as rebellion outside power, but as a force tied to it. Across four centuries of conflict, pirates, privateers, and empires shaped one another through violence, ambition, trade, slavery, and the struggle to command the seas.
From Constantinople’s fall in 1453 to the industrial age, this vivid narrative crosses the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea, showing how empires encouraged, funded, and fought piracy when it served their interests. Drake, Morgan, Blackbeard, and Ching Shih appear not as myths, but as figures within a global system of conquest and commerce.
Grounded in historical analysis, Black Meridian shows how piracy helped shape navies, ports, maritime law, global trade, and the modern world itself.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory
Length13 hrs 3 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateFeb 17, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Start Part 1
2Start Part 2
3Start Part 3
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Red RecordIda B. Wells-Barnett2h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20
LES MISERABLES (Illustrated Edition)Victor Hugo66h 17m$1 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m$28 · $0.00
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Complete 6 Volume Edition)Edward Gibbon179h 45m$2 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m$29 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m$29 · $0.00
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