It seems that movies and Disney made their image much more different than the real ones, with those nice clothes and free lifestyle, drinking rum and stealing things... How REALLY were they?
Check the FAQ (in the sidebar) for /u/eternalkerri's posts. She's the chair of /r/AskHistorians Pirate Studies department. You could also search in /r/DepthHub and /r/bestof, because some of those posts were linked there and went supersonic on the upvotes.