Pirates have existed since people began transporting goods by water, but the first two and half centuries after Europeans arrived in the western hemisphere were the “golden age” of piracy.  Privateering, buccaneering, and piracy played central parts in the creation of an English-speaking system of maritime trade and settlement in the Americas, and to a surprising extent the story of the first British Empire’s fortunes can be told through the medium of piracy. Because piracy and privateering have attracted the interest of many scholars, often working from wildly variant interpretive angles, this subject provides a point of entry not only into specific aspects of Atlantic and maritime history but into different ways of writing history as well. In this course students conceived and executed a major independent project in historical research and writing. In addition to a paper, students had to present their research during a poster session. These posters provided a snapshot into their research, discoveries, and conclusions.