Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Teach violently hijacked the British colony of Nassau to establish a radical democratic pirate republic where brutal thieves actually enjoyed better…

A closer look

Forget the romanticized Hollywood swashbuckling; the Pirate Republic of Nassau was essentially a heavily armed, rum-soaked socialist experiment. In 1713, a coalition of the most dangerous men on earth, including the infamous Blackbeard, took over the Bahamas. Instead of a chaotic bloodbath, they established the Flying Gang and instituted a strict Pirate Code. Captains were democratically elected, loot was distributed equitably, and there was even a standardized worker's compensation system for losing a limb in battle. It was wildly progressive—unless, of course, you were on the merchant ship they were currently plundering.