Primarily the Golden Age of Piracy. For my class I can pick any topic I want to research on and I've been incredibly interested in pirates lately. I've been reading a book called "The Republic of Pirates" by Colin Woodard which is a good secondary source of some of the main pirates and Woode Rogers. The problem is that it's so entertaining that I have no clue what I should bog down on as a thesis. Just writing about pirates in general is too broad I'm sure. I was thinking about looking into some of the lesser pirates that aren't really discussed of even researching into the quartermasters of the famous ones like Blackbeard or Bellamy. Or I dunno, maybe answer a bigger question like different motives or causes and effects.
If anyone could direct me to other sources or suggest different viewpoints it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
When trying to write on a vast subject such as pirates, it is useful to look for a narrow focus or scope that can be examined. It is also useful to look for something on which you can find interesting sources.
A possible focus would be to write about Pirate "Articles of Association".
These were the documents, signed by a pirate crew, which set out the rules and disciplines of a pirate life. We have all or part of only 5 "Articles of Association" as original sources, so they would be easy to research. Then, there are a lot of secondary sources, which give points of view on how egalitarian and democratic pirate society was, which might be confirmed or disputed by a careful reading of the primary sources.
Although probably not universal for pirates, it seems to have been usual for a pirate ship to have "Articles of Association" or "Articles of Agreement" which detailed discipline, shares in spoils and compensation for injuries.
Crew would sign (or make their mark) against these Articles. The Articles might apply for a particular ship, or sometimes just for a particular voyage.
Privateers (which were legal and licensed private warships) would almost always have such articles. Pirates copied the practice from privateers.
The articles were sometimes called, "The Pirate Code" or a "Code of Conduct", or a "Charter Party". There were standard Articles such as the "Custom of the Coast" or the "Jamaica Discipline", but many captains had their own versions.
Articles were supposed to have been first introduced by 17th century Portuguese buccaneer, Bartolomeu Portugues.
There were often harsh punishments (death or marooning) for running in battle or appropriating more than their fair share of plunder. Lashes for striking other crew members. Other punishments were often left "to the discretion of the Captain and the majority of the company".
This website gives some examples of surviving Articles of Agreement (only 4 Articles, and one partial set of Articles (from the famous pirate Henry Morgan) survive):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_code
Hope that suggestion is helpful. Good luck. Have fun.