In his book, Final Passages: the Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, Gregory O'Malley makes the argument that the rise of piracy is almost a direct result of the trans-atlantic slave trade. Check out chapter 3 in particular, "Captive Markets for Captive People" for more in depth discussion on this. https://www.worldcat.org/title/final-passages-the-intercolonial-slave-trade-of-british-america-1619-1807/oclc/888539046&referer=brief_results

Sorry I didn't get a chance to respond sooner, but I only get a few chances a month to check this place.
The idea of pirates as political rebels against European society is now kind of old in the historiography of pirate history. Historians in the 70s to 90s, in particular a crop of Marxist historians, jumped into this field of history (early modern era piracy history that is) during a time when studying history was much harder than it is now (where you can do in 1 year what it could take someone in the 1980s 3 years to do - because computers and the internet is one of the biggest blessings historians ever got). Before the Marxists historians (and a few gender/sex historians along with them), serious study of pirate history was extremely limited (which is not surprising considering how much work it takes to gather the sources that go into it). While their ideas about why pirates engaged in piracy during the "Golden Age" had significant issues (and spoke more of modern politics rather than history), they were pioneers in this field of study.
For you, I would recommend looking at this thesis: 'Piratical Schemes and Contracts': Pirate Articles and Their Society 1660-1730 by Edward Fox. You'll be able to pick up some ideas in there, and a good set of sources to further dig into for your coursework.