In the second half of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, many of the characters spend time in a stockade. Now, I was unfamiliar with the term–sort of–as I assumed a stockade was something you put a ne’er-do-well in to force them into acquiescence. Turns out that’s a pillory.

Today on the blog, we are going to look into a definition of this term and how it was used in the book.

Definition

A stockade is a “line of stout posts set firmly to form a defense,” or “an enclosure or pen made with posts and stakes” (Merriam-Webster). Additionally, it is “a strong wooden fence built around an area to defend it against attack” (Cambridge).

The word stockade is a nativization of the Spanish estacada (Etymology).

Both of the definitions are “defense-heavy” and rely on the fact that one must create a sort of bunker that has both an exterior (palisade) defensive position and an interior defensive position.

Historically

Stockades have been used throughout history to provide fortifications. The Romans and Greeks used them as temporary military camps, while Europeans used them in medieval times as extensions of castle fortification. The Motte and Bailey Castle resembles a stockade and was “An early type of castle” that had “an artificial or natural mound (motte) on which a tower is built with a courtyard below, surrounded by a palisade and moat.”

Moreover, Native Americans and pioneers used stockades as protection from ravagers alike (consider early Jamestown).

Additionally, stockades were used in the American West to lay a stake in secured land.

In the book

In Stevenson’s novel, a stockade is a fortified location that was built by Captain Flint for defense purposes. Here, it is a fort made of logs that has s wooden fence with sharpened stakes. It also has an interior cabin for shelter.

On the outside, it doesn’t look as though it is necessarily indefensible, but it has enough protections to guarantee a group of people more safety from assault than simply being out in the open.

Conclusion

A stockade is a sort of min-fortification that was used to defend against aggressors and keep secure supplies in case of attack and for storage. In history, stockades were used as defensive measures, sometimes permanently and sometimes impermanently. Captain Flint’s stockade in Treasure Island served a semi-permanent purpose in order to give he and his shipmates a place to hideout and store their ill-gotten gains.