True Pirates

  Cultural critic and essayist Walter Benjamin said, "History is written by the victors”, and the tale of  "exploration and discovery" is an example of history being written by the triumphant.Although what explorers such as  Columbus, Drake, and Morgan did was described as leading voyages of grand discovery where the "new lands" and "new resources" were found, loaded on ships, and brought back to the discoverer's land, instead these resources and lands were spoils of war. In the process, many Natives were deceived and murdered for shiny rocks and salty fish. Columbus, Drake, and Morgan and others like them resorted to unspeakable acts of violence, cruelty, and brutal behavior that mirrored the acts condemned shortly after as pirating.Columbus enslaved natives, forced conversion to Christianity, and stole the natives' islands and possessions. So in hindsight although what a history book calls discovery is actually pirating and who they called voyagers were actually pirates.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kasum/columbus-day-a-bad-idea_b_742708.html

Edward Teach

Fact meets fiction or rather UBF meets B&P. In the most cliché of ways these two text that are different in so many ways are the perfect match. In the most spectacular examples of art imitating life the examples of what a pirate was and is wasn't all wrong. There was a Black Beard ,pirates did outrun the governing forces that hunted them, and there were politicians that with a couple pieces of gold would turn their heads to the wanted men.... and women. Although the musicals, hooked hands, and peter pans seemed to tone down what being a pirate truly was and some examples like Pirates of the Caribbean even romanticize it pirating was a dark path to walk. The legend of Black Beard for example painted him as a fearless, hooked hand, swashbuckling man who outsmarted or out fought all those in his way. While this is true of Edward Teach the narrative leaves out how he set fire to his notorious beard to intimidate his enemies. How a sizeable amount of his time as a pirate wasn't spent looting or singing, but hiding and the most important part of all that his fairytale life didn't have a fairytale ending. Edward met his bloody end. English accent pun intended, to the hand of the british navy in North Carolina where he'd been paying to be allowed to stay. Although he may have had the Johnny Depp style life in the beginning he never sailed of into the open sea to a free life of leisure with his black pearl he bled out on a water deck on th Queen Anne's Revenge.
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/blackbeard-killed-off-north-carolina