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. I assumed it was a wooden structure for ne’er-do-wells to force them into acquiescence. Turns out that’s a pillory. In this post, we will define literary and historical stockades.
Definition
Colonists and soldiers built these wooden forts which sport a “line of stout posts set firmly to form a defense. It is also “an enclosure or pen made with posts and stakes” (Merriam-Webster). Moreover, stockades are “a strong wooden fence built around an area to defend it against attack” (Cambridge). Similarly, 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
Most importantly, armies and groups of people used Stockades throughout history to provide fortifications. Often, this was to protect something important. For example, 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.” The Motte and Bailey had “an artificial or natural mound (motte) …” On the mound, builders constructed “a tower” 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, Americans in the West during the 1800s used stockades to lay a stake in secured land. Practically speaking, this allowed them to control an area and protect their supplies.
Literary Example
In Stevenson’s novel, Captain Flint built his stockade for defense purposes and to hide his pirated loot. In the novel, the fort is made of logs with a wooden fence topped 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 mini-fortification. The groups that constructed them secured them against aggressors in case of attack and for storage. Likewise, real armies and fictional pirates used them as defensive measures. Sometimes, the same groups used theme permanently and sometimes impermanently. Captain Flint’s stockade, a literary stockade, in Treasure Island served a semi-permanent purpose. Flint and his men used it as a hideout and a place to store their ill-gotten gains. As such, we can count on real and fake villains and heroes to utilize these literary and historical stockades for their own gain.
