Is Black Sails based on true events? (Black Sails historical accuracy explained)

Last week, the historical pirate drama Black Sails landed on Netflix for the first time ever, to much rejoicing from fans. Black Sails ran for four seasons on Starz from 2014 to 2017, and for a long time the premium cable network and its related streaming app were the only way to watch the series outside of owning the DVD sets. With it now being on Netflix, a whole new audience is being exposed to the show. And that's great, because Black Sails is excellent television!

Like all good historical dramas, Black Sails deftly toes the line between actual history and fiction. If you're embarking on your first journey to the pirate capital of Nassau, you may be wondering exactly how much of the show is based on fact and how much of it isn't. If that's the case, you're in the right place.

Black Sails is a Treasure Island prequel that uses real history

Set during the early 18th Century's Golden Age of Piracy, Black Sails is a historical drama about the rise and fall of Nassau, an English colony in the Caribbean which became the de facto hub of piracy in the region. Nassau is a real place, and it actually did serve as a home for pirates during this time period; as such, some of the details surrounding it are based on fact.

At the same time, Black Sails is also a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island, which is about a young boy named Jim Hawkins who gets wrapped up in a voyage to find the lost treasure of the feared pirate Captain Flint. Flint is long gone by the time of Treasure Island, but another pirate who once served as Flint's first mate, Long John Silver, poses as a humble sea cook in order to sneak aboard Jim's vessel and get the treasure for himself.

Black Sails takes characters like Flint and Silver and imagines what the last days of the Golden Age of Piracy might have been like if they really existed alongside real-life pirates like Charles Vane, Calico Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Ned Low and Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. Flint and Silver — along with the rest of the Walrus crew — are all completely fictional characters. But the show cleverly slots them into real history, weaving them in and out of known events like the wreck of the Spanish Urca de Lima treasure galleon. At the same time, it also builds on established dynamics from Treasure Island like Flint and Silver's relationship, showing how these two famous pirates first met and came into one another's confidence. And yes, it does deal with the origin of the treasure of Treasure Island as well.

The rise and fall of Nassau

Once we move past the Treasure Island characters, the historical accuracy of Black Sails increases even more. As mentioned, the show features many famous pirates who were all real people, like Charles Vane and Blackbeard. These historical figures are in many ways larger than life, and there's far more that we don't know about them than we do. That gives Black Sails lots of room to color outside the lines, fleshing out personalities and character relationships while still dramatizing its own take on some of their most famous aspects.

A good example of this is the relationship between Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham. These two pirates did have an actual partnership in real life — along with a third pirate, Mary Read, a woman who posed as a man in order to take to the high seas. Black Sails explores Anne and Jack's relationship in detail in such a way that it never really contradicts historical events. That sort of approach permeates the show.

This is especially true when it comes to Nassau, an island which really did serve as the hub of piracy in the Caribbean. Black Sails' third season deals with the arrival of a British captain named Woodes Rodgers, who is assigned to become the governor of the island and comes bearing a blanket pardon from the crown. Rodgers and the pardons are drawn directly from history, as is the fact that some pirates, such as Blackbeard, opposed him while others took the pardon. This is a major historical moment that marked the beginning of the end for piracy in the region. Again, the series keeps the big picture things from history, while filling in a lot of the details.

Black Sails also has a fair amount of completely new characters. The best example of this is Eleanor Guthrie, the foul-mouthed noblewoman crime boss of Nassau. The Guthries were indeed a real Scottish merchant family who had dealings with the pirates of Nassau, but Eleanor herself is a completely fictional character. So is Maxine, the prostitute who rises to prominence as a major manipulator of events on the island.

As someone who watched Black Sails when it was first airing and subsequently went down a deep research rabbit hole, I was surprised at just how much the series plays with actual history and historical figures. It may be a primarily fictional story, but many of its biggest turns have their roots in the history books.

Black Sails draws from true events, but also makes up plenty of stuff

So on the one hand, Black Sails has storylines and characters drawn from history. On the other, it has characters and storylines which set up the events of Treasure Island and explore Captain Flint's tumultuous reign as one of the Caribbean's most feared (fictional) pirates. And lastly, it has completely new characters which aren't drawn directly from history or Stevenson's novel.

There are plenty of historical dramas which toe the line between history and real life, but few walk that line quite so interestingly as Black Sails. You can watch all four seasons of the series now on Netflix!

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