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
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m4.6 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789 (Annotated)Alexis de Tocqueville17h 25m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
All the Gallant MenDonald Stratton, Ken Gire5h 55m4.6 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Medgar and MyrlieJoy-Ann Reid10h 52m4.5 (27.8K)$29 · $0.00
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