Piracy, the act of seizing a ship or its cargo from its lawful owners, has been a plague since people first set sail on the high seas. By the Elizabethan Era, English piracy entered a Golden Age, as pirates plundered its coastal waters unchallenged. As Spain gradually increased its wealth through its own savagery in the New World, English pirates feasted on Spanish ships, eventually spreading piracy to the Carribean Sea.

On this episode of America's National Parks, Pirates, and their role in the creation of America, immortalized at National Park Service units up and down the East Coast.

In fact, there are so many stories of piracy and privateering in today's National Parks, that choosing just one was difficult, so we settled on two centered around Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site - with many more to touch on in a future episode.

Show notes and more info at http://nationalparkpodcast.com/pirates-and-parks