From producer Jerry Bruckheimer (PEARL HARBOR) comes PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL, the thrilling high-seas adventure with a mysterious twist. The roguish yet charming Captain Jack Sparrow's (Academy Award(R) Nominee Johnny Depp) idyllic pirate life capsizes after his nemesis, the wily Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), steals his ship, the Black Pearl, and later attacks the town of Port Royal, kidnapping the governor's beautiful...

Although the literature includes many tales of female pirates, the truth is there were only a handful of women pirates compared to the many thousands of men. When women were on board, they were more likely to be passengers, prisoners, or laborers. You'll explore the exceptions to this rule as you learn about the famous Caribbean pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

Pirates often let their captives go. After all, many pirates were mutineers themselves, and they certainly knew what could go wrong with too many unhappy captives on a ship. But did that prisoner release also apply to Indian and African men--or just to Europeans? Reveal the deep and complex relationships between pirates and enslavers.

While piracy today is more geographically confined than it was centuries ago--and often tied to large criminal syndicates--it still seems to be driven by "greed and grievance." Learn about the socioeconomic forces that continue to perpetuate piracy off the coast of Somalia, in the Straits of Malacca and Gulf of Guinea, and in other locations around the world.

Modern Western culture largely depicts pirates as romantic, freedom-loving antiheroes. But is that a harmless fantasy? Examine why scholars insist that the way we talk about piracy affects our world today. As we begin to examine the aftereffects of colonialism, can we afford to ignore the very real impacts of pirates on merchants, coastal dwellers, and Black and Indigenous peoples?

Captain Jack owes a blood debt to the legendary Davy Jones, who captains the ghostly Flying Dutchman. Unless Jack can find a way out, he will be cursed to an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation.

While it was a common tale that pirates were motivated to revolt against cruel masters and a desire to spread democratic principles, the complex truths of piracy and the pirate life were much different. What were the real goals of those pirates who attacked and overthrew maritime powers? And how did the pirate motto, "A merry life and a short one," come to be?

Explore the reasons piracy has endured from ancient times until today, and why it is so difficult to both define and eradicate. How do we understand the rule of law and the rights of nations and individuals--not only on the high seas, but in other borderless realms stretching from cyberspace to outer space?

Examine popular pirate legends, and discover which aspects include some truth and which contain none at all. While much of the information we have about pirates and piracy comes from fiction as opposed to historical texts, pirate literature can teach us a lot about the jolly roger, gold-filled treasure chests, the pirate Edward Thatch (also known as Blackbeard), and more.

What did pirates want? Money--or anything they could turn into money. Consequently, they usually wished for a speedy surrender, didn't particularly want a battle, and rarely sunk the ships they captured. Consider the many tactics pirates used to apprehend their prey in the age of sails, from understanding the weather gage to deceptive flag practices.