Dear Mystic Seaport Library and Special Collections,
Thank you very much for your help during our research trip to study pirates this summer. As we are researching the changing meanings of "pirate" throughout history, several aspects of your collections were very helpful to us. On the matter of evolving legal and policy responses to and understandings of piracy, the transcripts of Civil War era trails of Confederate privateers on charges of piracy provided us with excellent empirical evidence of the disputer meaning of 'pirate' during this time.
Equally illuminating in terms of popular cultural understandings of piracy were your collections of pirate stories for children which help us trace the course of the romantization and de-fanging of portrayals of pirates through the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. We really appreciate your help in locating and providing these text for us.
Sincerely,
Researchers from American University
Washington, DC