In his book Bandits, historian Eric Hobsbawm discusses the notion of social banditry. In many cases, Hobsbawm explains, bandits and thieves who arise out of poverty are not motivated by greed or by any desire to provoke violence, but are, instead, “peasant outlaws whom the lord and state regard as criminals, but who remain within peasant society, and are considered by their people as heroes, as champions, [and as] avengers” (Hobsbawm 2000: 20). Social bandits, as Hobsbawm defines them, are thus rebels against an unjust upper class, fighting to right perceived wrongs committed by those in power. By examining both historical record and archaeological evidence, this paper will aim to demonstrate that one of the most notorious pirate fleets of the Golden Age, namely that of Captain Samuel Bellamy and his crew, was indeed comprised of social bandits. Though they were branded as criminals by the law, Bellamy and his crew nevertheless acted primarily as rebels against the perceived tyranny of 18th century elites, and formed a better, more egalitarian community of their own aboard their Atlantic fleet.