The real pirates of the Caribbean

On seizing a vessel, they turned its government upside down. Instead of using whips and other violence to enforce a rigid, top-down hierarchy, the pirates elected and deposed their captains by popular vote. They shared their treasure almost equally, at a time when captains aboard privateers (private, legally sanctioned warships) typically got 14 times more than a crewman, according to surviving ship contracts. Many pirate crews didn't allow the captain his own cabin – he had to share it with the crew.

"This is a time when the distribution of income, land, and power is becoming increasingly concentrated, yet the pirates organized themselves very democratically," notes Ken Kinkor of the Expedition Whydah Museum in Provincetown, Mass.

Most surprising: Popular opinion was on the pirates' side. Authorities regularly complained to their superiors in London that many of their subjects regarded the pirates as heroes. Virginia Gov. Alexander Spotswood fumed that his citizens had "an unaccountable inclination to favor pirates," while his counterpart in South Carolina weathered a pro-pirate riot in which Charleston narrowly avoided being burned to the ground.

"They were figures of popular folklore while they were still alive," says Marcus Rediker a University of Pittsburgh maritime historian. "They were breaking the law, and yet they were not seen as criminals by a majority of the population."

Their allies sometimes included the authorities themselves. In 1718, Blackbeard came ashore here in Bath, North Carolina's sleepy village capital at the time. In an effort to suppress piracy, King George I had offered a pardon for pirates who turned themselves in. Blackbeard – a former British privateer also known as Edward Thatch or Teach – took the pardon from Gov. Charles Eden and then appears to have set himself up as a sort-of Tony Soprano figure, directing an underground piracy operation under the governor's protection.

When Royal Navy officers eventually came to apprehend the arch-pirate, they reported that Governor Eden's administration was distinctly uncooperative. The reason became clear when, during a search of the Collector of Customs' barn, a large parcel of pirated goods was discovered under a pile of hay.

Not all pirates were impoverished sailors. Indeed, some were quite respectable, including Paulsgrave Williams, son of Rhode Island's attorney general, and Stede Bonnet, scion of an influential Barbados family. There's considerable evidence that these pirates had a secret motivation of their own: to depose George I and restore the House of Stuart to the British throne. Some pirates from the Bahamas even sent a letter to the court of the would-be Stuart King in exile in France offering their services.

A remarkable number of pirates were of African or native American origin, according to accounts of captives and pirates brought to trial. The pirate vessels were among the few places in European America where they could be free. There were more than 30 Africans in Bellamy's crew, and as many as 60 in Blackbeard's, which would have made them the majority. These crewmen – all probably born in the Americas – appear to have been treated as equals. (Not so those Africans found in the holds of inbound slave vessels, who the pirates appear to have generally regarded as cargo, rather than potential recruits.)

The Disney series draws on these influences, from their inclusion of Africans in the pirate's crew to the cross-dressing antics of Elizabeth Swann.

If a fourth movie is made, perhaps its writers will dig deeper and find they won't need quite so much of the supernatural to carry the plot along.

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