Anyone know of any good deeds/things pirates did to help people?

Sorry, I was making a cheap joke. I am pretty sure you mean to say "hanged". It is clear that Drake wasn't "hanged". Whether he was hung or not isn't clear from the history books.

The Irish and the British get along fine. Irish Americans are something else entirely, I don't think either of us gets on well with them.

What exactly do you think "pirate" means? Here is a cute video about that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQBWGo7pef8

Here is a bunch of cute videos getting more specific:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pirates+and+emperors

You might investigate Mexican drug lords. They often are highly respected in Mexico because they build schools and do other works that benefit the people.

The most famous pirates at the moment are from Somalia. That is because Somalia has a weak central government and ships are not paying for passage through Somali waters. So the ragtag navy tries to board ships and collect fees on the spot.

If you think "pirate" only means the captain of a ship, you might be surprised to learn that pirate ships in the sailing days usually were owned by the crew. They appointed one of their number to be the captain because they wanted him to lead. It was somewhat rare for a single person to be wealthy enough to buy a ship by himself.

I didn’t intend to have everyone argue about the definition. I only wanted to know something specific a pirate during the Golden Age Of Piracy might’ve done that people don’t know about. Such as maybe one freed hundreds of slaves. Or another fought to have equal rights for woman. This is so I can show examples of pirates (from back in the day), doing good things for a change.

When I think of a pirate from this time. I think of someone who came from a society holding them back. E.g the unfair government. I even read one just wanted to get away from his wife. And they decided to restart by themselves, becoming a pirate. A privateer put simply is someone with government permission. A pirate is the opposite. They do it without legal laws.


Some even came from a slavey based background. Who by joining a crew, (or even leading one), get offered some kind of protection.

America (as we know it today) was founded by pirates. Where do you think White people came from?

Pirates were the unskilled scrum of the maritime world. Those with genuine skills did not go for piracy, because they could make decent money for those times. In fact, a commonly used and largely successful defense against a charge of piracy was that one was a forced man, that one had been forced to go along and had not been a willing member of the enterprise. Coopers, carpenters, sailmakers, riggers and other skilled seamen would successfully use this defense. They had a good prospect of supporting themselves and a family. By contrast, those who willingly took to piracy were unskilled, ordinary seamen with no prospect of advancing in the profession. Any claim about romantic, noble pirates is a load of old birdie poop.

It is pretty certain that everybody's only source of information was some movie they watched. Even today, the word is only loosely defined. For instance if you have ever used a computer program without paying for it, you are called a pirate. So the answer to the question depends entirely on exactly what you think the word means.

If you want a good subject for your essay, google "female pirates". There is a LOT less baloney in that topic.

If you can stretch the definition a bit, there is a nice story about the bougainville, a pretty red flower used extensively along highways in Arizona. It was named by the first woman to sail all the way around the world. She named it after the captain of the ship because women were not allowed on ships in those days and he never noticed.

Thanks for the input. You’re probably the person who has given me the clearest answer. So, do you think I should just change the project entirely? If there is no way to prove pirates were kind of ‘upstanders’ for their time. Do you have any suggestions other than the abolishment period, holocaust survivors, etc. This project is quite a big deal since it goes towards getting me credits for school to pass the year. Thank you.

Thank you for your opinion.

What are the rules for this project? Are you supposed to describe a group that tried to change society for the better?

The only rules really is it has to be based around the topic ‘upstander’. Malcolm X was really popular. Along with the project needs to be several other smaller projects as well. I think one is a static image? I don’t really know how to show being an upstander in a picture. Thank you.

What about Winston Churchill. Lots about him standing up to the Nazis, saving the World and so on. He's currently on the £5 note.

Yet it's not all good. He's hated in France for sinking the French fleet and his actions in India were highly questionable.

This sums it up.

I'd recommend looking into people who risked their lives to save innocent people from harm.

People who took risks to help Jews hide or flee from the Nazis for example.

Or people who took part in the underground railroad for escaped slaves in the early United States.


Perhaps Gandhi or Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King would be good choices too.

Or maybe Malala Yousafzai.

Pirates were latterday Templars...
Enough said.

They brought equal voting rights, womans right (they weren't very common in that time) and were fighting for a descent pay (they stole it).