ABSTRACT
Examples drawn from The General History of the Pyrates and The Buccaneers of America clarify what stories about pirates like Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet owe to Caribbean culture. Popular legends miss important historical contexts, such as how intricately connected piracy was to landed society, its cultures, goods, and markets. While there are meaningful cultural links between Atlantic piracy and rebellion against the injustices of maritime norms, pirates were not egalitarian freedom fighters. Their links to slavery and the enslavement of African and Indigenous peoples were complex (at best) and absolutely ubiquitous; there is no understanding piracy without this framework.
