For the history extension project, the topic area I have chosen for the project is the Golden age of Piracy which lasted from 1650 – 1730 AD, and how the time is portrayed in both popular culture and media, as opposed to historians, documentaries and nonfiction. The Golden age of piracy has been a hugely popular time period for lovers of both historians as well as authors, movie makers. The Golden Age of Piracy itself is one of my favourite periods in human history, however, the period itself has been a subject of debate through how its portrayal in popular culture affects the image of how it was actually believed to have been during the period of time itself.
Questions:
- How has the Golden age of Piracy been told differently in both factual sources and fictional stories.
- How have historical pirates such as Blackbeard been portrayed in fiction and how has that reflected on his factual legacy
- What are some of the most popular beliefs and stereotypes portrayed in fiction that were actually never true.
- How has fiction reflected on the public beliefs on historical pirates and how accurate is its reflection
In terms of finding, collecting and analysing the information available in order to complete the project, I need to do thorough and deep research into historical and fictional sources in order to develop an understanding of the history, the time and how it reflects on the debate of non-fiction vs fictional portrayals of the golden age of piracy. In terms of the historical side, this can include pictures and paintings from the time, due to the time period taking place before the invention of the camera. Notes and documents from possible pirates and those that clashed with them. Historical books that were written by historians at the time, most reliably those that would have seen the events unfold, this can include books written by pirates themselves. In terms of non-fiction and popular culture, there are different forms that can be used, in terms of movies, examples include “The Pirates of the Caribbean” Movies, treasure island, Peter Pan and others. Other examples can be video games such as Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, which has been known to use a wide variety of historical sources in order to get as accurate of a portrayal of the time as possible.
The Golden age of Piracy was one of the most popular historical times that has been a large source of material for portrayals in fictional stories, movies and books. However, the time itself has been portrayed in a wide variety of different forms throughout fiction, this raises the question about accurate the portrayal of the time and how it actually was is shown and portrayed in the eyes of the majority of the public. Inaccurate portrayals can deceive and mislead the general public as to how the history of the golden age of piracy actually was. Because of this, how has popular culture portrayed different versions of the time of the golden age of piracy and piracy in general and how has this affected the public view of the actual historical recordings account the golden age of pircay. Fiction Writers vs Historians.
In terms of finding the information, before I look into a certain source, I want to look into the historians that either wrote or drew the pictures used in the source, I want to know if they were biased, lived at the time, when they created the source and how reliable they are as a source, as actual photographic evidence of the time is impossible as the camera wasn’t invented until 1816 almost over 100 years after the end of the golden age of piracy, the only possible images are paintings from the time, not able to capture the actual image but instead paint the image into what it should look like, and as a result, can be either incredibly truthful, or heavily fabricated and twisted. In terms of notes, books such as Pirates Fact vs Fiction and documentaries such as The Golden Age of Piracy Terror at Sea by BBC, they should be taken from reliable primary sources such as those who were alive and present at the time period of which the source is talking about or showing.
Sources include –
- Pirates of the Caribbean, a film series released by Disney which consists of five films and tells the story of Jack Sparrow and his crew of pirates
- Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, a video game created by Ubisoft
- Golden Age of Piracy Terror at Sea, a documentary by BBC
- Pirates Fact vs Fiction, a novel written by David Cordingly
The Golden age of piracy always been an area of history that has been interesting and inspired many different authors and artists, making it extremely popular in stories of fiction. Because of this and its many different interpretations, there is much to compare in terms of historical accuracy and fictional portrayal.
History Extension work blog 