This is page is not really an article, but more of a list of valuable web resources for historical information and references regarding the history and times of the Golden Age of Piracy (generally accepted as the Carribean and Coastal Americas during 1670 to 1730 A.D.).
Various books published within or near the time period about the the time period.
John Esquemeling - The Buccaneers of America - An HTML version of Esquemeling's (sometimes spelled Exquemeling) book, which is a first hand account of the activities of the Buccaneers living in the Carribean and the Coastal areas of the Spanish Main (what is now Central America and South America).
William Dampier - New Voyage Around the World - A well annotated HTML version of Dampier's Book about his voyages during the years 1679 to 1691.
William Dampier - A Voyage to New Holland - An HTML version of Dampier's Book about his voyage to New Holland (now known as Australia)and the other places he stopped on the way in 1699. Available as a part of Project Guttenburg
Captain Johnson (a pen name of Daniel Defoe?) - A General History of the Pyrates - An online text version with scalable photos of the actual book and plates on another tab of the web page. Originally published in 1724. I have read that the authorship of this book has been disputed. Regardless of who actually wrote the book, it is one of the best contemporary works about the pirates as written from first hand accounts during the Golden Age of Piracy.
John Davis - The Seaman's Secrets - A plain text web publication of a 1659 book about the art of navigation. Slightly earlier than the period in question, but still incredibly valuable as little would have changed in the art of naval navigation from the time of this publication until long after the GAoP was over.
Robert May - The Accomplisht Cook (or The Art & Mystery of Cookery) - A facsimile web publication of a cook book dated to 1685, perfect for getting an idea of what cooking style and food is appropriate within the period.
Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde - Fregette (Frigate) - Three JPG images from a German web site of a ship design (a frigate) dated to 1680. Image 1 - Image 2 - Image 3.
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman - Architectura Navalis Mercatoria - A HTML and TIF version of the ship designs of Chapman. These designs are dated to ~1765 to 1768 AD, which is after the period, but there would have been little major innovations in naval design in the intervening years, and as such these designs would be very indicative of the types of ships used within the period.
Le Diable Volant - An oline resource (or list of resources or links) mainly focussed on French Buccaneers. Most of the information is in French, but for those who can read and understand French, it is good.
Links to web sites featuring photos or articles about artifacts from the period or well documented reproductions.
Military Artifacts of Spanish Florida 1539 - 1821 AD - A web site that is an online museum of Spanish artifacts (mostly buttons and buckles) found in Florida (and some from surrounding areas) for the cited dates. Of most interest to this topic are the following three pages from this web site, 1650 - 1700 and 1700 - 1795 and this page on Military Artifacts from Spanish Shipwrecks.
Pirates of the Whydah - An oline exibit of some of the artifacts found on the Whydah, an escavated pirate ship sank in the year 1717 AD.