Illicit commerce was key to the survival of the mid-Atlantic colonies from the Golden Age of Piracy to the battles of the American Revolution. Out of this exciting time came beloved villains like Captain William Kidd and Black Sam Bellamy, as well as inspiring locals like Captain Shelley and James Forten. From the shores of New York to the oceans of the East Indies, from Delaware Bay to the islands of the West Indies, author Jamie L.H. Goodall illuminates the height of piratical depredations in the mid-Atlantic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Jamie L.H. Goodall, PhD, is staff historian with the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. She has a PhD in history from The Ohio State University, with specializations in Atlantic world, early American and military histories. Goodall is an expert on Golden Age piracy and has published with The History Press/Arcadia Publishing, the Washington Post and National Geographic. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, Kyle, and her Boxers, Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler.