Black Flags, Blue Waters

by Eric Jay Dolin · 2018

Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates chronicles the Golden Age of piracy in the Americas, spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s. Set against the Age of Exploration, Eric Jay Dolin shows how colonial Americans first embraced pirates as allies against the Crown, then turned against them. The book brings to life figures such as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd and Edward Low, and their foes—including governors, evangelists and a young Benjamin Franklin—through vivid tales of mutiny, treasure, and brutal sea‑borne violence, upending popular myths about piracy and revealing its impact on early American society.