The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard

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The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard



                I blame the series “Black Sails” for why I enjoyed this so much. The characters that I watched avidly on Starz for four seasons were real and in all of their glory and truth on these pages and I really enjoyed learning of the real history. Woodard with this book, chronologically tells the history of the Golden Age of Piracy. He starts with the roots of piracy, focusing on the why and how of piracy. But he also focuses on the early lives of four of the men whose names are the most well known in pirate history. Three are the pirates Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy, Charles Vane and Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch. The other is the man credited the most with helping to end piracy, Woodes Rogers. But if you are like me, the fan of “Black Sails” there are plenty of other names you’ll recognize as well like Jack Rackham and Hornigold.
  
              Woodard tells this story of piracy in a way that exposes it for it’s very brutal and yet, exaggerated existence. While some of the pirates were extremely brutal and harsh, there were many more that were reasonable and started off with intentions nowhere near aligned with piracy as we now see it. This book is honestly just really interesting. I was automatically invested because I already had an image in my head of who these pirates were and the type of lives they led. My entire motivation for reading this was discovering the truth which I did. I didn’t go into this book with absolutely no idea who these characters were, which I think really helped me while reading this book. With that in mind, I recommend this to people who have an interest in the history of piracy and some background knowledge of these characters. I give this 4 out of 5 stars. I learned a lot about the history of the Golden Age of Piracy and was highly entertained and at time disgusted by this book.

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