I wouldn't say I'm very well studied in Pirates, but I've played "Sid Meyer's Pirates" and loved it.

A common theme in the game is that there are 4 great powers of the Caribbean sea: the British, the French, the Dutch, and the Spanish. Different cities have different allegiances (and as the Navies of the respective powers move, those cities could change sides). There's also trade winds to account for, the value of plunder (wheat, guns, and other goods you capture). There's also different statistics for different ships... and those statistics depend on the direction on of the wind (the canoe being the fastest against the wind for example).

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Anyway, where I'm going with this is that you're a Pirate in the game. However, your first goal is almost always to obtain a Letter of Marque from one of the great powers. The game even allows you to obtain a letter of marque from all 4 great powers (though unrealistic, its kinda funny to think you're a Privateer authorized to plunder all other powers)

This is a bit of a sarcastic wink that the difference between a "Pirate" and a "Privateer" really isn't much. You go off on your sea vessel, you attack trade ships and plunder them. The Privateer just has a piece of paper (the Letter of Marque) that shows that you're doing it on behalf of a power.

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John Paul Jones is perhaps the most famous American Privateer. In 1776, when the Revolutionary War started, John Paul Jones and his ship was off in Europe on other business. Hearing that war has been declared, he began to attack the British Isles on behalf of the USA.

John Paul Jones was captured however and charged for Piracy. Fortunately, he had an American Flag flying on his ship, so he was "legitimate".

Alas: the American Flag was described to him through letters. So he really didn't know what it looked like. He just... kinda drew the flag as best he could: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serapis_flag (13 stripes of red-white-and blue, with 13 stars on the top left? Gotcha. Totally the American flag, right?). At least, the Dutch thought it was an American flag (probably a political statement on behalf of the Dutch against the British, but hey, politics always existed).

Anyway, my point is that a Letter of Marque was a big deal, making these "piracy" events legitimate. If you're just randomly attacking the British and stealing stuff, you're a Pirate. But if you're doing that because of the 1776 Revolutionary war (and you have a "flag", albeit a poorly drawn incorrect one + the piece of paper / signature from the US Congress stating the Letter of Marque), you're a lawful combatant and treated as such.

Piracy probably never really died off. It just became legalized in the weirdest way possible.

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Age of Sail, in English-speaking countries, is romanticized with Spanish enemies (see Capt. Hook, who is clearly wearing Spanish Garb + a Spanish Galleon). Because the Spanish ruled the seas in the 1400s, while the British were the upstarts. Fighting "dirty" by using Pirates (and later privateers) is just the natural result of the politics of that age. We can reverse-engineer the age of sail somewhat through our legends and stories that we've passed down over the centuries.

From an American perspective: we romanticize the British/Dutch trading company as the enemy somewhat. (See Pirates of the Caribbean), because "our" privateers/pirates attacked British ships.

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Given that the difference between a "Pirate" and a "Privateer" was simply political pieces of paper, I would not be surprised that Pirates were all over the US Colonies from the 1600s. The 13 colonies issued over 1700 letters of Marque during the Revolutionary War IIRC, suggesting a significant number of "skilled sea plunderers" in the colonies, so to speak, of varying sizes. No, the USA never had a good enough Navy to really fight the British on equal terms during the Revolutionary war, but these Privateers were pivotal in harassing / annoying those trade routes / supply routes.

Those skills didn't just magically appear in 1776 during the war. Those people "were already" pirates, and just chose to support the Revolutionary War and begin to organize into the USA's nascent Navy. There's no documentation of this beforehand because those people were likely illegal pirates, so its a "purposeful" forgetting of those old crimes in order to bootstrap the early Navy. IMO anyway.

But yeah, not much may be known about "Pirates". But the legal "Privateer" is extremely well documented and well studied. And you can definitely see and feel the "wink-wink and nod" towards Piracy if you go through the historical records.