On American pirates of the 17th century – among other things, crews elected their captains

Christopher Klein interviews author Eric Jay Dolin in The Boston Globe, "The surprising history of American pirates."

As Marblehead author Eric Jay Dolin chronicles in his new book, “Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates,” 17th-century sea-bandits propped up colonial economies while preying on ships from a faraway Muslim empire. Not until they started to plunder local merchants in the early 1700s did colonial attitudes toward pirates harden.

From the interview:

Few pirates actually became wealthy, so why did they do it?

Pirates were like gamblers entering a ...