Did Mercer know there was an actual Golden Age of Piracy? While historians vary to some extent on their answer to this question, it is generally accepted that the Golden Age of Piracy lasted from approximately 1650 to 1730. The answer to the question ''when was the Pirate Era at its peak?'' is a little more specific: the decade of 1716-1726 was the height of piracy, particularly in and around the Caribbean region. Many of the pirates whose names have gone down in history were active in that decade or before. After 1726, piracy began to decline because of increased governmental oversight and a variety of other factors.
After some research, we found that Isla de Pinos near Cuba, which served as a supply base for pirates for about 300 years, is believed to have inspired the book, "Treasure Island". Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands was supposedly mentioned to Stevenson by a sailor uncle. We did some exploring of these locations in class today. Mercer seemed quite interested in learning how the Age of Exploration, colonization of and colonialism in the Americas and Caribbean enabled piracy to occur in the worlds new to Europeans in the 16th - 18th centuries.