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{{short description|Code of conduct for governing pirates}}
[[File:Pg 154 - So the Treasure was Divided.jpg|thumb|300px|Treasure being divided among pirates in an illustration by [[Howard Pyle]].]]
A '''pirate code''', '''pirate articles''', or '''articles of agreement''' were a [[code of conduct]] for governing [[Pirate|pirates]]. A group of sailors, on turning pirate, would draw up their own code or articles, which provided rules for discipline, division of stolen goods, and compensation for injured pirates. Breaking the code could get a pirate [[marooning|marooned]] or killed. These articles were designed to keep order, avoid dissension, and ensure the crews’ loyalty, which was crucial to survival.
==History==
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==Examples==
Four 18th century pirates, Bartholomew Roberts, John Philips, Edward Low and George Lowther were known to have written articles for piratical rules onboard ships. Lowe’s articles were published in ''The Boston News-Letter'' on August 1, 1723, and also ''The Tryals of Thirty-Six Persons for Piracy, Twenty-Eight of them upon Full Evidence were Found Guilty and the Rest Acquitted'', which was also printed in 1723. Nine complete or nearly complete sets of piratical articles have survived, chiefly from [[Charles Johnson (pirate biographer)|Charles Johnson]]'s ''[[A General History of the Pyrates]]'', first published in 1724, and from records kept by [[Admiralty Court]] proceedings at the trials of pirates.<ref name="Fox Dissertation">{{cite book|last1=Fox|first1=E. T.|title='Piratical Schemes and Contracts': Pirate Articles and their Society, 1660-1730|date=2013|publisher=University of Exeter|___location=Exeter|url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/14872/FoxE.pdf|access-date=15 June 2017}}</ref> A partial code from [[Henry Morgan]] is preserved in [[Alexandre Exquemelin]]'s 1678 book ''The Buccaneers of America''. Many other pirates are known to have had articles; the late-17th century Articles of [[George Cusack]] and [[Nicholas Clough]] have also survived intact. Part of the reason that few pirate articles have survived is that pirates on the verge of capture or surrender often burned their articles or threw them overboard to prevent the papers being used against them at trial.<ref name="Fox Dissertation" />[[File:"Signing the Articles" from the 1936 Pac-Kups "Jolly Roger Pirates" trading card set.png|thumb|right|"Signing the Articles" from the 1936 Pac-Kups "Jolly Roger Pirates" trading card set]]
===Articles of Bartholomew Roberts===
[[Bartholomew Roberts]]' Articles were similar (but not identical) to those of his former Captain, [[Howell Davis]]. In turn, Roberts' Articles influenced those of pirates such as [[Thomas Anstis]] who served under him and later went their own way.
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