How to Rewrite the Rules, with Sam Conniff Allende

Black Sam Bellamy, the so-called Prince of Pirates, championed diversity and equality. Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, embodied “global pirate branding.” He terrified foes by setting off fuses in his beard, surrounding himself with sulfurous smoke. Black Caesar, a famous black pirate, was one of many who set slaves free long before abolition. And Anne Bonny was a formidable female pirate. In fact, in the early 1700s, a pirate ship was pretty much the only place women could find absolute equality. These characters were “the [Sheryl] Sandbergs and the Steve Jobses of their time.”

Pirates manifest in times of economic disruption and market...