What Pop Culture Gets Wrong About Pirates
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We all love pirate tales but what do we really know about the history of piracy? In this episode of Rogue History, we examine the common assumptions we make about pirates. Explore the origin of these myths and figure out which are true and which aren’t.
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Rogue History
Shaking off the barnacles from this wildly popular storytelling canon, this Pirates historical series is an irreverent and enlightening voyage that unravels historical myths, unearths lost narratives, and discover fresh perspectives. This is the pirate history you were never told.
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00:00 Intro
00:05 The Mythology of Pirates
00:26 Pirates vs Privateers, Letters of Marque
02:31 The Golden Age of Piracy is a Fraction of the Full History of Pirates
04:06 Zheng Yi Sao was the Most Successful Pirate Ever
04:18 Depictions of Women in Piracy
04:45 BIPOC pirates
05:57 Pirates Relied on Native Populations to Survive
07:29 Why are Pirates Depicted as Heroes in Pop Culture?
@ray.shoesmith
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Q: Why are pirates called 'pirates'?
A: Nobody knows, they just arrrrrrrrrrrh
@davidbrasher3595
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
I read that piracy would go in waves. Trade would boom. So some people would take to piracy to prey on the traders. One pirate ship would capture a prize and make it into another pirate ship. The two pirate ships would each capture a prize and then there would be four pirate ships. There got to be so many pirate ships that nobody dared to trade. Piracy became unprofitable. Most of the pirates had to quit. Without so much piracy, trade would boom. And then the cycle would repeat.
@lacithedog5506
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
And they didn't all speak with West Country accents. A British person associates the "pirate accent" with FARMERS!
@ConLustig
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
!!!! I love rogue history ❤
@dylansearcy3966
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Blackbeard was definitely successful as a pirate
@dylansearcy3966
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Vikings were basically pirates
@dylansearcy3966
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
1:17 the privateer looks like Blackbeard
@dylansearcy3966
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Pirates are still around wreaking havoc at sea today
@Chance_Rice
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
4:52 I hear enough about black pirates for my liking, always stealing
@andredfreitas6909
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Was Piri Reis a pirate?🤔🤨
@geeksdo1tbetter
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
The 1856 Paris Declaration, which the US didn't sign, outlawed privateering, although the US has largely adhered to its provisions, according to the Center for Maritime Strategy.
@geeksdo1tbetter
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
0:57 "And you may also annoy the enemy."
@timbuktu8069
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Where I come from, operating a boat while drinking is just as illegal as driving while drinking.
Therefore all those drunked up fishermen are actually Pirates.
@sailorstu
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
I am in Canada,
In this land Pirates didn't say Arrrrrt
They said Ayyyyy
At least that is what I tell people in a pirate act I do from time to time 😊
@NicholeDaysleeper
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Not Tom Hanks lmaoo
@jkim6200
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
According to an old Sports Illustrated article, most men's fashion began with pirates. Bandanas,piercings, goatees, tattoos, etc. Pirates->Rock Stars->Athletes->Teenagers->Middle Aged Men
@slayer0235
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Privateers also ran the risk of being branded pirates by their own government. Letters of marque were typically only valid during war time and if you were to capture an enemy vessel or raid an enemy town after the war had ended, your home government wouldn’t hesitate to throw you under the bus to preserve the peace treaty. And since news took months to travel, you were very likely to hit one or more targets before hearing the war was over.
@michaelfarrell5101
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
how about grace o malley
@Sezstu
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Our concept of how a pirate sounds derives from the accent of the British actor who played Long John Silver in Treasure Island.
@numb3r5ev3n
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
And here's me wondering if this popped up in my algorithm because I recently re-watched Pirates Of The Caribbean.
@hemlockYT707
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
The only depiction of Zheng Yi Sao I've seen in pop culture is from Doctor Who, "Legend of the Sea Devils." Where the entire plot was of her and the Doctor's crew tracking down lost treasure in return for her crew. Fantastic episode, really.
@rwing27nuke
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Space time sent me here.
@RHR.73
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
nobody cares about black pirates
@TylerHellums
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Ahh yes, Tm Hanks, the pirate fighter.
@eggmoe23
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
0:59 7 warlords confirmed?
@MrMegaPussyPlayer
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
0:01 Because the difference between a fiend and friend is just a single arrr?
@ShivzDotzTV
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
So Black Caesar is black but not Blackbeard? Lol it's in the name FFS 🤷🏾♂️
@perroraton9515
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
I Learned much of this playing "Sid Meier's Pirates." Anyone else? Rrrrr
@jmlalonso6417
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
A history teacher and archaeologist here! Fist of all, I love all documentaries that tries to bring light over shadows. Congrats for this one! Because that is the reason of any science and history is also a science where truth have to flow.
Said that, romantization of pirates was just part of a continued marketing plan called "The Black Legend" just to justify the atrocities made against Spain (firstly), and other Spanish cultural nations (later). Behind the image of an adventure spirit and a freedom fighter hides a well documented monster with no hesitation of robbing, rapping, murdering, sexual slavery, and even cannibalizing other human beings in the worst horrific way possible. Non-military and peaceful villages all over central and south America were ravaged and burned down to the ground by these scum with the protection of their protective crowns (England, France & Netherlands, mostly). If you don't believe this, just do some deep research in historical sources to find out who did those atrocities and who was protecting them.
And just one more reflection. Its so terrible to see how popular pirates are now days in schools, kindergartens and pop culture because of this merchandising tale, that imagine Russia and China would start to promote and protect drug dealers in USA; giving money to movements to see dealers as freedom fighters for the right of people to live their lives the way they want with fentanyl, cocaine or heroine. And 200 years after this, every eastern nation would see drug dealers as heroes in schools, kindergartens and pop culture icons. That would be terrible and bizarre.
SPOILER: British imperium did exactly this in China, in Oppium War, making most Chinese population in drug dependents just for pure greed. On the other side, Chinese culture traditionally never promoted the image of pirates, because they knew them very well for being the greatest cause of torment in coastal lands: first by their own Chinese pirates, and then by British, French and Dutch pirates.
Nowadays all these cultures presume to be educated very and civilized, but first Right Human Chart was not in 1789: fist was in 1504, by Queen Isabel of Spain, who claimed in her dead bed, as her last wish, to ensure the protection of native americans people whom Spain discovered in the new world. That was a growing snowball in Spanish psyche and the beginning of a process of brotherhood and good relations thaks to mixture between people, language and culture. People with a similar soul. After that point, no American native will never be enslaved or tortured by inquisitorial trials, and even African slaves were often freed, protected by laws, accepted as citizens and promoted under Spanish crown (see FORT MOSES for more references). Spain was not perfect at that time. That's for shure. But after 1504 and to 1898, black population was far better treated than in any part of the world (Africa included). Even slaves were treated as humans, with laws to ensure they were well treated, and their children were not slaves by heritage. As said, Spain was not perfect, but always fight against human villain nature searching for a better future, starting in its own territories, offering the example. The result is clear today: where Spanish settled, native American people, languages, traditions and culture were mostly their own and did not disappear, still living today. On the other hand, far away from Spanish settlements, in North America, native Americans where slaughtered and confined in reserves, sunken in alcohol and misery in a ridiculous proportion less than 3% of the population.
All nations have their lights and shadows, but there are lights long ago shadowed, and shadows not lighted for too long. Disney can keep doing hypocritical "What If?" episodes where Spanish appear doing what really did people with Jones, Smith or Jackson as family names, because they still believe in that old friend of them Gloebbles mantra that prays "a lie repeated 1000 times can become a truth." Demonize non spanic cultures is no my intention, but some lies must be finally be put on their knees. Knowing the past is the only way to understand it, learn the mistakes and wins, and apply it in the future as only one race: the human race. Because history of all cultures belongs to you as the human being you are.
If you arrived here, thanks and I encourage you to search the truth that lays under centuries of lies just to cover facts with guilty conscience.
@angelaguerrero3808
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
I'd like to appoint that england having an army of pirates didn't interfere with their own slavery business as the rest if the countries and not just Spain, btw the major slavist in the athlantic where Englands ally Portugal.
@obiwanshinobi87
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
Its like the wild west… its the stories that made those era's that big
@Corn0nTheCobb
October 13, 2025 at 9:56 pm
PBS Spacetime sent me here
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