Before you dive into research, start by collecting some background information about your pirate. Get to know the basic facts about the person before you start digging for primary sources and further information. See if you can find out:
You might want to start with a basic Google search or Wikipedia search. These can be good tools to use to determine general facts about a topic, but keep in mind that they are not going to be scholarly sources. You will want to find other sources that verify the information. Some other suggested sources are listed below.
These background sources can also give you a roadmap to primary sources. If you're looking at an encyclopedia entry or a book, look at the bibliography or references. You may find the author has cited different primary sources that you can then look for and examine yourself.
Biographies of both modern and historic individuals.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Public Library Edition.
Biographies of important individuals in United States history. **Limited to 1 user at a time. Please click "Sign out" and close the website when you are done.
Biographies of important individuals in British history, up to the present day. **Limited to 1 user at one time. Please click "Sign out" and close the website when you are done.
Date(s): 1473-1700
Historical ebooks published in English in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America.
Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740
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Piracy in the Early Modern Era: An Anthology of Sources
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Bandits at Sea
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Under the Black Flag
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Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates
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Pirates: A New History, from Vikings to Somali Raiders
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Once you have some background information, use what you know to start looking for more detailed and scholarly sources. Think about where you're likely to find information about your pirate. Were they active in one particular part of the world? Did they have known associates? Were there significant events in their life that there would be information about?
Journal articles, book chapters and magazines about the history of the United States and Canada, 1450-present.
Journal articles, book chapters and magazines about the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450-present.
Journal articles in almost every subject area, including some historical articles back to the 17th century.
Journal articles, magazines, and news in almost every subject area.
The Primary Sources section of this guide includes information about what primary sources are, where to find them, and how to use them. Historical and primary sources about your pirate could include newspaper articles about their activities, government and military records about interactions with them, diaries or journals written by your pirate or their associates, and other publications of the time.
Date(s): 1684-1820
Early American newspapers and magazines, digitized at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worcester.
Date(s): 1756-1963
Historic newspapers from all different U.S. states, hosted by the Library of Congress.
Date(s):1785-2019
Articles from the London Times, including all pictures and advertisements.
Date(s): 1701-1800
British and American books, pamphlets and broadsides from the 18th century.
Historical sources owned by libraries, museums and other institutions in the state of Massachusetts, browsable by topic, institution, format or location.
Date(s): 1490-2008
Primary sources created by and about enslaved individuals and abolition movements.
Date(s): 1600-2000
Primary sources created by and about enslaved individuals and the practice of slavery around the world.
Date(s): 1500-1998
Primary sources created by indigenous Americans and the Europeans who interacted with them, searchable by date, genre, area and indigenous nation.
Date(s): 1473-1700
Historical ebooks published in English in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America.
Scanned books from major research libraries. Best for books published before 1928.
You can find many kinds of historical books in the library. This could include writings published during the relevant time period as well as editions of primary accounts/documents that were re-published later. Use the Library Catalog to find print books, print journals, and ebooks in the library's collection. Access the Library Catalog search through the library home page (https://www.holycross.edu/library). Above the search bar, select "Library Catalog." To use more advanced searching options, click on the "My Library Account" link below the search bar to go directly to the catalog, where you can search by keyword, title, subject, or call number. You can also access the library catalog directly from the link below.
Remember to watch your keywords -- a book written in the early 20th century will use different vocabulary to talk about various historical events.
Many of the pirates you will be researching had interactions with different government bodies. Whether they were put on trial, had wanted notices, or signed deals with governments, there are likely to be records of those interactions. These records are primary sources, but they will take a little more digging to find.
Holy Cross Libraries have many historic government records for states in and around New England. To search for them, start in the Library Catalog and click "Advanced Search."
Enter the state you are interested in finding records for in the first search box and change the dropdown menu to say "Subject." Enter "colonial period" in the second search box and change the dropdown menu to say "Subject." See the example below.
The results will show items in the Library's collection that include those subject terms. Keep in mind that these may be collections of primary sources and likely won't be "tagged" with your pirate. This is a good tool to use if you know the relative year and location of some government interaction. Your search results will show you what is in the library and will give you a call number, which is the location of the item on the shelf.
You can see an example below of a catalog record for a book that contains the laws of the Massachusetts colony. Click on the title to see the catalog record with the description, subjects, and call number.
A bibliographical sketch of the laws of the Massachusetts colony from 1630 to 1686. In which are included the Body of liberties of 1641, and the records of the Court of assistants, 1641-1644. Arranged to accompany the reprints of the laws of 1660 and of 1
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Finding and interpreting primary sources can be challenging. Librarians are here to help! You can schedule a personal research session to meet with a librarian and work on finding sources for your project. We recommend scheduling this early on, since reading primary sources can take some time. When you fill out the form to schedule your appointment, please include the name of the pirate you are researching to help us prepare for the appointment.
Use what you know from your background research to make a list of keywords. Think about your pirate's name and aliases, companions, ships, and key life events. Write down important dates in your pirate's life, including the years they were active. This will help you know what time period to look at for primary sources. Keep track of important locations - where they were born, where they died, where they were imprisoned or captured (if at all), and where they were active. You can also use these as search terms or filters for primary sources.
The links below include some examples of research plans and copies you can fill out with your own topic. Having a plan in place when you conduct research can help you keep things organized and remember what search strategies you've tried.
You can use the words AND, OR, and NOT to combine your search terms for precise searching. These are called Boolean operators and each one has a different purpose.
The Venn diagrams below can help visualize how Boolean operators work. The purple shading represents what results will be shown in that search.
Use “quotation marks” around phrases in your search so the database looks for the entire phrase instead of each individual word. This can be especially helpful if the phrase you’re looking for is made up of common words.
Use the asterisk symbol (*) to replace characters in a word. The database will search for variations of the word based on the root part of the word (what you include before the asterisk).
