Flying the Black Flag: Golden Age of Piracy Deconstructed

Abstract

Piracy during the Golden Age has often been fantasized about through many forms of popular culture. The time period has been fictionalized and glorified by contemporary society, oftentimes weaving together factual accounts of the men and women who had a role in the Golden Age with dramatized fiction to provide us the tales of the swashbucklers we know today. What this research paper aims to do is to provide a factual account of what being a pirate in the Golden Age was truly like, while debunking the myths and legends that surround this era of maritime history.