"Pirates and other social bandits adopted social mechanisms which can be summarized as libertarian, democratic, federal, egalitarian, fraternal, and communal ownership. It may well be argued that these 'floating commonwealths' are examples of a form of pre-Enlightenment radicalism." They were also far less conscious of national, religious and racial differences than what was common.Johnson, David E. Review: Of Pirates, Captives, Barbarians, and the Limits of Culture. American Literary History 14 (2) (Summer 2002): pp. 358-375. Even women, such as the pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, could enjoy the freedoms of life aboard a pirate ship.Cordingly, David. Pirates : Terror on the High Seas, from the Caribbean to the South China Sea. (Atlanta;Kansas City, Mo.: Turner Pub. ; Distributed by Andrews and McMeel, 1996.), 135
