Lawless bandits, high sea adventure, and buried treasure! When we dress up as pirates on Halloween, do our humorous sayings and elaborate costumes bear any resemblance to the real pirates that once terrorized North America? In this episode of Fabric of History, Mary, Kirk, and Haley discuss piracy's rise and fall in the Mediterranean and American Colonies, Blackbeard’s fierce tactics, pirate havens, and more. Why did so many choose this rough life and why do we romanticize pirates today?