Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, this story reveals the dramatic and surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age”. Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrages pirates in an early display of colonial solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes of men like Blackbeard, Captain Kidd and Edward Low, Dolin provides a wholly original account of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.