Piracy Papers: Primary Source Documents from the Golden Age of Piracy

“These are the horrid, barbarous and bloody facts truly set down with every circumstance, for which I am now condemned to die, and whereby it appears that I am not alone guilty…” The Golden Age of Piracy was over by the 1720s, but the legacies these scoundrels left behind are still with us. Part of that legacy exists in written form: trial records and newspaper articles, speeches and sermons, laws and proclamations. Collected here are thirty-eight original period documents, edited and footnoted for clarity and context. The letters and memorials you’ll find inside show all sides of life in the time of pirates, from preachers to prisoners and from victims to governors and mayors.