History

The Caribbean is home to a notorious band of British pirates called the Flying Gang. They plunder merchant ships, sailing from the Americas to Europe and Africa. England's King George I has had enough, so he comes up with a shock tactic to end piracy. It's an offer from the King, a pardon, clemency for those who turn their backs on piracy. Those who refuse will be hunted down and hanged. Two pirates, Blackbeard and Charles Vane stand the King's man, Woodes Rogers. Who will win the final battle?

The Pirate Republic of Nassau gets fat attacking trade between Britain and the Americas. But its foundations are rocked by the death of the most successful pirate who ever lived, Black Sam Bellamy, washed up on a New England beach. But Edward Thatch reinvents himself and becomes the most devilish pirate of all, Blackbeard. Woodes Rogers' campaign begins with the offer of a pardon, which Hornigold and Jennings accept; but not all Nassau pirates agree.

In 1717, the seas of the Caribbean are ruled by the Flying Gang: Black Sam Bellamy, Edward Thatch and Benjamin Hornigold. From their base in the Bahamas, these pirates steal a fortune from the wealthiest empires in Europe and disrupt the lucrative slave trade. English authorities tap Woodes Rogers to put a stop to the pirate attacks. He is on a mission to destroy the Flying Gang of the Caribbean.

The pirates of the Caribbean's humble base in Nassau turns into a boomtown run by Benjamin Hornigold. But Hornigold's crew deposes him for his refusal to attack English ships; but one man, Edward Thatch, remains loyal. Meanwhile, pirate raids on British slaves provokes outrage.

There had been other pirate settlements in different places but none of them had worked quite the same way that Nassau did. There was a fort there. People stayed, they built a community on the land. Larger and larger numbers of pirate-minded people were showing up there and starting to develop an economy around themselves. Men like Edward Thatch, later known as Blackbeard, his sidekick, Black Caesar, a former slave, and the pied pirate that led them all there, Captain Benjamin Hornigold.
In the second episode, tensions rise between Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings; their rivalry takes a new direction when Hornigold declares Nassau a pirate republic.

In this documentary series we will see how the real-life pirates of the Caribbean violently plunder, stealing and form a surprisingly egalitarian republic. The historical drama portrays the rise and fall of the eponymous early-18th century pirate republic based in Nassau, Bahamas.
The series begins in 1715, shortly after the close of the War of the Spanish Succession, which pitted England against Spain. England had waged the war on the cheap, resorting to the use of privateers rather than incurring the expense of fully funding the Royal Navy. The ending of this war leaved thousands of Caribbean privateers unemployed, when the wreck of a treasure fleet creates new opportunities.