Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates

by Eric Jay Dolin

With surprising tales of vicious mutineers, imperial riches, and high-seas intrigue, Black Flags, Blue Waters is “rumbustious enough for the adventure-hungry” (Peter Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle).

Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age” - spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s - when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. “Deftly blending scholarship and drama” (Richard Zacks), best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, Dolin depicts the star pirates of this period, among them the towering Blackbeard, the ill-fated Captain Kidd, and sadistic Edward Low, who delighted in torturing his prey. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Black Flags, Blue Waters is a “tour de force history” (Michael Pierce, Midwestern Rewind) of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Pirates, Audiobook, American History, Historical, Adventure

425 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

I grew up near the coasts of New York and Connecticut, and since an early age I was fascinated by the natural world, especially the ocean. I spent many days wandering the beaches on the edge of Long Island Sound and the Atlantic, collecting seashells and exploring tidepools. When I left for college I wanted to become a marine biologist or more specifically a malacologist (seashell scientist). At Brown University I quickly realized that although I loved learning about science, I wasn't cut out for a career in science, mainly because I wasn't very good in the lab, and I didn't particularly enjoy reading or writing scientific research papers. So, after taking a year off and exploring a range of career options, I shifted course turning toward the field of environmental policy, first earning a double-major in biology and environmental studies, then getting a masters degree in environmental management from Yale, and a Ph.D. in environmental policy and planning from MIT, where my dissertation focused on the role of the courts in the cleanup of Boston Harbor.

I have held a variety of jobs, including stints as a fisheries policy analyst at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a program manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an environmental consultant stateside and in London, an American Association for the Advancement of Science writing fellow at Business Week, a curatorial assistant in the Mollusk Department at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, and an intern at the National Wildlife Federation, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, and the U.S. Senate.

Throughout my career, one thing remained constant--I enjoyed writing and telling stories. And that's why I started writing books--to share the stories that I find most intriguing (I have also published more than 60 articles for magazines, newspapers, and professional journals). My most recent books include:

***A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes (Liveright, 2020), which was chosen by:

The Washington Post -- One of 50 Notable works of Nonfiction for 2020

Library Journal -- One of the Best Science & Technology Books of 2020
​
Kirkus Reviews -- One of the top 100 nonfiction books of 2020 (it was also a finalist for the Kirkus Prize)
​
Booklist -- 10 Top Sci-Tech Books of 2020
​
Amazon.com -- One of the Best Science Books of 2020

And also was an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review.

New York Times -- Editor's Choice

***Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates (Liveright, 2018), which was chosen as a "Must-Read" book for 2019 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and was a finalist for the 2019 Julia Ward Howe Award given by the Boston Author's Club.

***Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse (Liveright, 2016), which was chosen by gCaptain and Classic Boat as one of the best nautical books of 2016.

***When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail (Liveright, September 2012), which was chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the ten best non-fiction books of Fall 2012.

***Fur, Fortune, and Empire: the Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (W. W. Norton, 2010), a national bestseller, which was chosen by New West, The Seattle Times, and The Rocky Mountain Land Library as one of the top non-fiction books of 2010. It also won the 2011 James P. Hanlan Book Award, given by the New England Historical Association, and was awarded first place in the Outdoor Writers Association of America, Excellence in Craft Contest.

***Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America (W. W. Norton, 2007), which was selected as one of the best nonfiction books of 2007 by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal. Leviathan was also chosen by Amazon.com's editors as one of the 10 best history books of 2007. Leviathan garnered the the 23rd annual (2007) L. Byrne Waterman

Reviews

[Antigone · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off, Norton did a fine job constructing this book. It's got a great weight. Lush jacket, quality paper, a central eight pages of colorful plates, and nifty illustrations of flags, coins, ships and assorted pirate ephemera peppered throughout. A joy to every sense involved in reading. So bravo, Norton, this is what a book's meant to be and I'm pleased someone still remembers how to get that done. Turning into a lost art, this is, and we'll be all the poorer for it.

That said, one could wish for a more captivating history of America's most notorious pirates. Dolin has no passion for the subject and spends most of his time summarizing material taken from other works. There's a lot of debunking of myth, and proofs rendered to rectify the record - which results, time and time again, in a list of all the many reasons he can't tell you much about much of anything. This may indeed be the case. I find it entirely credible to contend that pirates, as a rule, were not diligent record-keepers and cared more about scanning the horizon for spoils than jotting down their day's events in a captain's log. It is certainly reasonable to conclude that elusiveness was the name of their game and that an absence of documentation would stand as the mark of a man's expertise at playing it. If these tales died with the pirates who lived them, so be it. There's no need to spend oh-so-many pages tsk-tsking the current historical account to tell me so.

Additionally...well, I'm just going to quote the inscriptions beneath two of those centrally-inserted color plates:

15: Since obtaining rights to an actual image of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow was too difficult, here is a picture of a man posing as Depp/Sparrow in Hollywood, California. It's not the real thing, but a very good impersonation.

21: In honor of my finishing this book, my daughter, Lily, did this small painting of a pirate ship looking for its next victim.

And that's about the size of it.

[Amanda Hupe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chirp books has struck again! I am obsessed. This time I bought Black Flags, Blue Waters by Eric Jay Dolin and read by Paul Brion. You all know how I can’t resist anything about pirates, especially pirate history. This book is the epic history of America’s most notorious pirates. In this book, the author goes into as much detail about the pirates, society and economics that affected pirates, and those in the American colonies who supported pirates. There are details of Captain Kidd, Edward Teach (also known as Blackbeard), Sam Bellamy, and many more! There are also many historical figures who come into play, like Benjamin Franklin. The time period of this nonfiction spans the Golden Age of Piracy which goes from 1600 to the early 1700s.

As I said above, I love pirate history…well, anything to do with pirates. I think what I find most fascinating is how pirates came to be. Belonging to a place, at that time, was a sense of pride. Pirates seceded from their place and pillaged and exactly violence in many different nations. It is not hard to figure out why they came to be though. They are a product of their society. Men who had debts were often press-ganged into the navy, which didn’t exactly have the best conditions. They depended on commerce and trade to make their living. Even though they were not popular at the time, their deeds inspired stories, legends, and lore.

The book can be a little slow-paced, especially for someone who may not find the topic interesting. However, since this is something I am interested in, the pace did not bother me. A few years ago, I was able to see the Whydah treasure in San Diego’s Natural History Museum. It really brings the stories to life when seeing something like that in a museum.

The narrator does a fantastic job of reading the story. He has a clear and firm voice that even adds a bit of suspense, especially when reading about the battles. Overall, I rate this audiobook 4 out of 5 stars!

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was my first nonfiction book in a while. And of course, it had to be about pirates. This book deals with the reality of pirates and their effect on shipping around the Americas during the early colonial age. It explains how and why piracy rose and how and why it declined relating to the change in perception about pirates on the people who lived in the colonies. It also tells about how a mix of change of perception in the people and the new rules imposed by countries such as England dealt the final blow to the golden age of Piracy. It is a very informative book and I liked how the author related the pirate's lives without having to rely on fictional accounts. good job.

[Daniel Villines · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s quite possible that this book needed to be written in its dry factual tone. Over the centuries, the written works associated with pirates have been built off of tall tales and have evolved into fantasies. The truths about pirates and their lives are completely obscured due to a lack of real information about the people that entered and departed notoriety over the span of mere months. It may have been that the only way for Dolin to have set the record straight was to write the record as it minimally exists, and this is exactly what Eric Jay Dolin does in Black Flags, Blue Waters. It’s a marvelous source for purely factual pirate history.

It’s the dryness of this work, however, that limits its enjoyment. Most of the factual information about specific pirates consists of names, ships, and dates. As such, these three facts, as they relate to the great number of pirates covered by Dolin, all blur together into a cloud of data as the book progresses. It was nearly impossible to see each pirate as a unique individual or to recall their specific activities as I approached the end of the book. From a general perspective, Black Flags, Blue Waters tells the same story over and over again: pirate created, pirate marauds, pirate hanged in the end.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much new here - to me at least, not that that's surprising given the deep dive I've been doing into all things pirate-related lately (for, y'know, some sort of totally obscure reason that's definitely not my OFMD obsession...), but a good look at the most famous figures that plied their pirating trade off the shores of America during the Golden Age of Piracy. Well researched and interesting, whether one is familiar with the topic or not.

[J.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun history of pirates from the late 1600s thru the early 1700s, but focusing on those who plied the Atlantic waters off the American colonies. Some famous names such as Blackbeard and Edward Low pop up here, and which don't usually show up in the histories centered on the Caribbean. I found it interesting that many colonists appreciated the pirates because they often brought goods which were otherwise difficult to obtain into the towns, and pirates often walked and spent their loot freely while on land. Some of the captains even had friends in high government places, and benefited from their protection. But this is not to say the pirates were viewed as heroes, especially in towns where a lot of merchant ships sailed from. Also, most of the pirates were quite brutal, and even when they acquiesced to the pirates on the seas, they were often lucky to be spared. And Dolin makes no bones about it - the pirates were not gentlemen and they weren't nice guys. There might not be a lot of new information if you've read a lot of pirate books, but I found it to be an entertaining read.

[Ints · Rating 4 out of 5]

Šī grāmata mums vēsta par pirātu zelta laikmetu - septiņpadsmitā gadsimta beigas un astoņpadsmitā sākums. aptverta gan ir tikai Amerikas pirātu prakse, un tādēļ Zelta laikmets attiecas tikai uz Atlantijas okeāna darboņiem.

Vispār jau grāmata ir izzinoša un faktu pārbagāta. Pie šaubīgākajiem autors nekaunas norādīt avotus un izvērtēt to kvalitāti. Pa lielam tie ir aculiecinieku pārstāsti, leģendas vēlāk vietējo avīžeļu raksti. Kā jau visas lietas pirātismu kolonijās sākumā uzņēma ar prieku, kā tu vēl tiksi pie normāla zīda vai traukiem. Kolonijām pirātisms nodrošināja preču apriti, kapitāla ieplūšanu, bezdarba mazināšanu un sabiedrības nevēlamāko elementu aizdošanos jūrā. Uzvaroša stratēģija.

Uzņēmīgam cilvēkam atlika vien nolaupīt savu pirmo kuģi, savākt komandu un aidā laupīt spāņus, frančus un, ja pietiek drosmes pat mogulu kuģus sarkanajā jūrā. Viss bija labi un skaisti, līdz piratēšana nesāka traucēt britu impērijas valsts kompānijas, tad viss aizgāja pa pieskari. Pirāti pārsviedās no spāņu zelta flotēm uz vietējiem mencu zvejniekiem un tas vairs nepatika nevienam.

Autors piemin arī visus tā laika slavenākos Dreiku, Kidu, Melnbārdi un vēl daudzus citus. Jāatzīmē, ka šo vīru karjera lielākoties nebija pārāk spoža, praktiski karjeru ar pārtikušu dzīvi beidza vien retais. Lielākā tiesa notērēja naudu ugunsūdenī, sievietēs un azartspēlēs. lielākoties arī visi viņu dārgumi ir tikai mīts, izņemot gadījumus, ja viņu kuģis pirms veiksmīga laupījuma noklenderēšanas nogāja pa burbuli. Bet visa tā apraktā manta lielākoties ir pekstiņi.

[OutsideOfTheTrack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid pick for a pirate-themed read! It came included with the Audible Plus subscription I was gifted for Christmas, and honestly, the narrator was the highlight for me—his voice and delivery really brought the story to life. The writing style also worked well, with those side quest-like stories that added depth to the main narrative.

That said, there wasn’t much new information here for me, even as a casual pirate fan. But it kept me entertained and made my workday fly by, so I’d call it an overall enjoyable listen!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to pirate history, however, it introduces nothing new if this is already a genre of history you've read in.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely done general history of pirates, pirating activity and the society of the time. Recommended

[Elijah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good. 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

I was lucky enough to win this in a Goodreads giveaway, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. For whatever reason, I've always been fascinated by maritime history in general and pirate history in particular (okay, I know exactly why; I grew up on the coast and read Treasure Island over and over), and what sets this particular history apart is that it takes a strictly non-romantic view of pirates. No theories about whether or not Bartholomew Roberts was secretly female, no credence given to tales of Sam Bellamy's romance, no lamenting the fate of Captain Kidd - just the facts as the author found them. That may make the book sound dull, but it isn't. Rather it comes off as perhaps more trustworthy because it doesn't buy into the myths. While it is limited to the American coast, for the most part (with bonus maritime provinces), it's still what I'd recommend as grounding literature before reading more romanticized texts.

My one complaint is that I do feel that Dolin could have gone into Anne Bonny a bit more, since she did live in the American South before going on the account. But since the Bonny and Read story is so heavily romanticized, I can't really blame him.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written and entertaining work.

Dolin does a good job setting the pirates’s story into the wider history of colonial America as debunking many of the myths around them and their trade. He covers such topics as the contribution of piracy to colonial economies, the collaboration between pirates and colonial governments, and does a great job conveying what the life of a pirate was like. He also covers how pirate communities flourished in wartime when they received privateers’ commissions, how democratic their societies could be, how popular they were with colonies when British governments imposed restrictive trade laws, and how quickly they spent their plunder before hoarding it.

The narrative is informative but a little dry and bland at times. A well-researched and colorful work overall.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. Boring.

Not the author's fault. I've read too much of the subject both in non-fiction and historical fiction. I should know better being burned out with historical things.

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Then each man to his gun,
For the work must be done,
With cutlass, sword, or pistol;
And when we can no longer strike a blow,
Then fire the magazine boys, and up we go.
It is better to swim in the seas below
Than to hang in the air, and to feed the crow,
Said jolly Ned Teach of Bristol.
A Sailors Song on the taking of Blackbeard, Benjamin Franklin

Dolin's scholarly look at American piracy was a fascinating and wonderful read. Starting in the early 1600s, British colonists begin privateering missions against Spanish ships and this will be the core breeding grounds for those who will shift to piracy. At first they were supported by the Colonists and deemed to be productive members of society, but as the pirates then shifted their attentions on Colonial shipping they became the nemisis of the very same merchants and politicians.

The "Golden Age of Piracy" lasted from 1650 till 1730. The book goes through the three stages of the Age. Starting in the 1600's with the privateers and bucaneers, to the 1690s where pirates will target East India Comany trade, and finally, most famously in lay culture, the 1715-1726 period where the end of the War of Spanish Succession caused masses of unemployed sailors to turn to piracy and dominated areas such as the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the North American eastern seaboard, and the West African coast.
Finally ending with strict laws and trials, the brief age of piracy is excellent researched and explained by Dolin. Many of the famous pirates like Blackbeard, Charles Vane, Anne Bonnie, etc are all covered and the book is not only informative but a fascinating account.
If you are interested in the history of American piracy then look no further than this excellent history book.

[Cindy Vallar · Rating 5 out of 5]

For five decades encompassing the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, pirates played an integral role in colonial history and life. Initially, they were welcomed, but as the years passed, what was once profitable coexistence became a dogged determination to eradicate these sea marauders.

Black Flags, Blue Waters presents the “celebrities” of this “golden age” of piracy with a narrowly focused lens. Most comparable volumes look at this historical period in a broad manner that encompasses the whole breadth of who, where, what, why, when, and how. Dolin examines one facet – those pirates with intimate connections to the American colonies – to showcase how world events and shifting attitudes led to them being seen as the “enemies of all mankind.” In doing so, he demonstrates how these criminals also became more legendary with the passage of time. This approach also permits him to showcase rarely mentioned pirates, as well as names familiar to many people today.

The narrative unfolds in chronological order. The first chapter, Small Beginnings, sets the stage, providing necessary background information to orient readers. The next two chapters – Welcomed with Open Arms and “Where the Money Was as Plenty as Stones and Sands” – explores the financial connection between pirates and the colonists, as well as the danger this interaction posed to England, and the transitions that shifted piracy from the Caribbean and Atlantic seaboard to the Indian Ocean and Madagascar and back again. Crackdown, the fourth chapter, concerns the mysterious Henry Avery. While he has no tangible connection to America, his capture and plundering of a single ship made the pirates wealthy and severely impacted how governments, the media, and people viewed pirates.

Like intermission at a theater, chapters five and six provide key information readers need to know to fully understand this historical time period. War’s Reprieve discusses the War of the Spanish Succession, when pirates all but disappeared from the world stage. In the war’s aftermath came the greatest upsurge in sea marauders that history has ever witnessed. It also gave rise to a different class of pirates than those who came before. Interlude, or a Pirate Classification covers the reasons for this and investigates who these people were and how they operated.

The subsequent chapters – Treasure and the Tempest, The Gentleman Pirate and Blackbeard, and Fading Away – introduce pirates, such as Samuel Bellamy, Stede Bonnet, Edward Thatch, and Edward Low – whose personalities and exploits commanded the attention of the public and the authorities alike during their lifetimes. Also discussed are the pirate hunters and the laws and punishments enacted to end the marauding.

Dolin concludes his narrative with his epilogue, “Yo-ho-ho, and a Bottle of Rum!” Here he explores the public’s fascination, both then and now, with pirates, including the discoveries of actual pirate shipwrecks.

Maps and illustrations pepper the pages throughout Black Flags, Blue Waters. The majority appear in black and white, but a vibrant collection of color plates is also present. (One curious note concerning one caption is the identification of Low’s Jolly Roger. The contemporary accounts I’ve read describe his flag as a red skeleton on a black background, rather than a white skeleton with an hourglass and three drops of blood.) Unfamiliar words and brief historical tidbits are noted at the bottom of the pages where they occur, while source citations and longer explanations can be found in the end notes. Dolin also provides readers with a select bibliography and an index.

The predominant personages readers meet are pirates, men such William Kidd, Henry Morgan, Dixie Bull, Thomas Tew, Francis Drake, John Quelch, and John Rose Archer. (Technically, Drake falls outside the time parameters of this history, but he did raid the American coast. Morgan, however, is a questionable inclusion. He may have been the greatest of the buccaneers, but his raids always centered in the Caribbean and Spanish Main.) But history and people never occur within a void. There are always others involved, and Dolin introduces these too. Among those who aided and abetted the pirates are Adam Baldridge and Governor Benjamin Fletcher. Victims who suffered at the hands of pirates include Philip Ashton and John Fillmore. Then there are those who helped to bring about their demise, such as Governor Alexander Spotswood, Lieutenant Robert Maynard, and Captain Peter Solgard.

Entertaining and compelling, Black Flags, Blue Waters is a swift-flowing, all-inclusive account of the history and evolution of piracy from 1680 through 1730. Dolin transports readers back in time so they better understand the time and places where intimidation, pillaging, cruelty, political intrigue, collusion, and punishment eventually led to the downfall of these “enemies of all mankind.” A worthy and must-read addition to any reputable pirate collection.

[Private Account · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a terrible book. Unless you like gratuitous violence and sensationalist smarm, then this is the book for you.

I wanted to learn about PIRATES, not serial killers! I don’t need a play by play of everything violent act committed by every pirate ever. Especially since at the end he reminds us that most pirates were actually not violent sociopaths, they were just crooks.

Despite his efforts to shock me with all the inventories of violent acts, it wasn’t sensational at all. This book was boring. Just people getting various body parts cut off over and over and over.

I bought The Pirate World to learn about pirates after this one since I came away from this book with little more than a bad taste in my mouth, like I thought I bought a documentary but ended up with HBO soft porn or something. Anyway, LOVE The Pirate World.

[Debra B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting ... pirating was not as glamorous as the movies and books make it seem. I also found it interesting that pirating and privateering was so essential to the economies of the colonies. In one sense it truly was a lawless enterprise except when it was condoned by the colonial government through the issuance of letters of marque.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Pretty decent audiobook. The beginning was a bit all over the place but the book hit its stride at about 20% and was interesting. Dolin obviously loves his subject and is extremely knowledgeable. Multiple times he brought up something and then said, "But we don't have the space to discuss it" or "Though interesting, that isn't within this book's scope."

[Simon Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of good chapters in here, and some interesting stuff about the actual day in the life of a pirate. Their motivation and how they became pirates but overall listening to this book made Pirates seem boring so probably best if you actually read it

[Burt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history of pirates and the political and business environments that often promoted and encouraged their activities, separating historical reality from the exaggerated and glamorized legends found in books, movies and popular culture. Debunks a lot of myths (like: Blackbeard never set his beard on fire, peg legs wouldn’t have really worked on the deck of a ship, pirates never buried treasure - why the hell would they anyway?) Interesting how pirates were allowed to run wild and unchecked, often encouraged and given legal permission by corrupt politicians looking for a piece of the pie in return.

[WaldenOgre · Rating 3 out of 5]

我对占全书大部分篇幅的那些讲述各个著名海盗的“职业生涯”的章节并不太感兴趣。真正让我感兴趣的，反而是插入的第六章：关于那个时期海盗的人员构成、组织架构和日常生活的章节。

全体海盗采用少数服从多数的民主形式来选出和罢免船长、决定攻击对象和解决任何海盗合约（嗯，他们还有合约）没有涵盖的具体问题。“虽然船长通常住在船上最宽敞舒适的船长舱房内……但他也和其他人吃一样的食物，如果船员中有人想要进入他的舱房，辱骂他或者在他的桌子上吃饭，那么他们完全有权这样做，因为他们并不觉得自己比这个被他们选出来当领袖的人低一等……他们（海盗）中的大多数人曾经遭受过高级船员的虐待，为了谨慎地避免再有这样的恶人，现在他们有权自己选择。选举舵手是海盗希望避免将太多权力交给一个人的另一个标志。”

所以，可以理解，后人对海盗的诸多浪漫���象，或许更多不是来自对于吓人越货（大部分海盗并不会滥用武力）、一夜暴富的憧憬，而是对于能够自由生活、浪迹天涯的渴望吧。

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colorful, engaging book about the 17th and 18th century pirates and their impact on American colonies and their economies, as well as seafaring in general. Dolin has rounded up the usual suspects such as Blackbeard, Henry Morgan and Captain Kidd, but also tells of the lives of pirates that are lesser known.

Of special interest is that pirates flourished off American shores for economic reasons and faded because of the same. American colonists loathed the Navigation Acts, which stipulated that all goods coming to the colonies had to be aboard English ships with primarily English crews and transshipped through England so steep custom duties could be paid. It was far cheaper for colonists and merchants to trade with pirates and so their view of pirates was positive.

Governors, too, had scant interest in prosecuting pirates, as they couldn’t afford to offend the merchants who supported them. And pirates often provided protection to the colonies in ways that the largely disinterested English government did not. Pirates waxed.

When Americans were better able to provide their own goods, when governors were less afraid of offending merchants, when protection was less an issue – pirates became not a boon to the colonies, but a bother. Pirates waned.

Most pirates met either swift bloody deaths or swung at the end of a hangman’s noose, but that seems to have scarcely deterred those who couldn’t resist the call of the pirate’s life.

The author concludes the book with a genial look at pirates in literature, TV and movies, cheerfully conceding that little of what you read/see is historically accurate, but the subject matter is too irresistibly interesting to quibble about accuracy.

So yo, ho, ho and a bottle or rum t’ye all!

[Nika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this like, a very decent foundational text/primer on pirates in the Americas, since it's so dedicated to detailing the primary sources that exist and debunking the myths that have been spun up around these figures, but... the other side of that is that this ended up being quite boring? The title calling itself "Epic" is pretty misleading when so much of this book deals with how mundane and depressing and boring the reality actually was.

Also just, no time is spent deconstructing anything about race in this book. There are a couple of stories that involve Native and Black unnamed pirates being imprisoned and sold into slavery instead of being executed, and Dolin does not spend ANY time discussing this. There is some minor aside that mentions that crews were mixed race and that pirates often plundered slaves and sold them on, and I think the text would have benefitted (and been more interesting in general) if he's spent a bit more time on this aspect of the proceedings. Instead, it feels very blasé and was a reoccurring theme in this book that I particularly did not enjoy.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahoy thar mateys! If ye be interested in pirates stormin' the seas this here be the book fer you!

I think pirates are fun. Every since I was introduced to Talk Like a Pirate Day it's been one of my favorite days to celebrate. In the classroom we learn about pirates and write pirate narrative in the weeks leading up to Pirate Day. On Pirate Day we all dress up in pirate gear and the day is full of pirate-themed activities in all subjects and treasure hunts resulting in ring pops. At home, I always have a "pirate party" with my niece and nephew. The point is, I like pirates. I like learning about them.

Dolin's book focuses on the American coast and piratical influence on the colonies. It was interesting learning more about some of these pirates I only knew by name. Personally, I thought Edward Low was the scariest one.

I'll be honest, I'll probably forget most of what I read, but it was still fun to listen to. The narrator did an excellent job.

If you think pirates are interesting, I'd recommend checking this book out.

[Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book! I really enjoyed reading it.

This is primarily short history of the Atlantic-carib pirates, and how piracy affected the colonies along the coast. The author also provides a few mini-biographies of the most notorious pirates during their "golden age".

The author discusses the years of piracy and privateering predating Henry Avery and the Golden Age of piracy. Included are some of the more lucrative raids that occurred against large Indian trading vessels in the Indian Ocean.

The author discusses the "science" of piracy in the early 1700's as well as the politics and legal battles that occurred between the British crown who attempted to maintain order and control in it's lucrative maritime trading and the American colonies that benefited greatly from the riches pumped into its economy by pirates spending their booty in the various coastal port cities.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Black Flags, Blue Waters” is an equally amazing addition to the Eric Jay Dolin canon of historical non-fiction books! This title focuses on the history of Piracy in the American colonies. Many of the pirates showcased in this book have interesting stories that will surprise many readers. Many of the myths and misconceptions about pirates are debunked in this work and proves that the real-life stories were way more fascinating and eye-opening. I recommend this book for everyone because it’s a gateway to the world of pirate history and it will leave you wanting to learn more.

[Porter Broyles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a rather ho hum book.

It's not poorly written, but it never really grabbed me.

The chapter on what we know about pirates from the History of Pyrates was very good. I enjoyed learning what People wore and ate. What they're race/sex was.

Very few women pirates in the real world.... The few that were documented wore men's clothes.

If you like pirates, you'll enjoy this book otherwise it was ok.

[Emily]

It's me, DNFing a book!*

Unfortunately, this book wasn't what I was looking for. I'm not a non-fiction reader, and the structure of distanced vignettes didn't draw me in. I am, as I said, not really the intended target, so I can't make any judgement calls on whether this was good or not.

*I'm not good at this, even though I have a finite amount of time on this earth to read. I'm trying to be better.

[Kurt Vlodek · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is SO boring and reads like a textbook, so...

A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel on his crotch.
Bartender asks; “What’s with the wheel?”
Pirate says; “Yar! It be driving me nuts!”