Edward Teach: The Golden Age Of Piracy

During the early 1700s, there was a time commonly known as, “The Golden Age of Piracy.” During these years the amount of pirates sailing our seas grew exponentially. Also during these years the inspired pirates usually came from a privateering career, who also inspired other privateers to join as well. They are well known for pillaging and/or plundering other ships at sea. One of the more popular ones during this time was a man known as Blackbeard.
His real name was Edward Teach, but it is also said that his last name could’ve been Thatch or Drummond. Through a majority of the official documents has it stated as Edward Teach. Teach was born and raised in Bristol, United Kingdom sometime in the 1680’s. There is no record of Teach going to school,
but he did set out to sea at a very young age as a privateer in Queen Anne’s War. Privateering was a legal version of piracy, so during the war they would help capture enemy merchant ships. After the war, Teach served for Benjamin Hornigold on a pirate ship for several years, leading him to the start of his pirate career. (Ullian)
“Benjamin Hornigold was an English pirate who operated during the tail end of the Golden Age of Piracy. His career lasted from 1715-1718. After he became a pirate hunter and pursued his former allies on behalf of the governor of the Bahamas. He was killed when his ship was wrecked on a reef during the hurricane season of 1719.” (Wikipedia Contributors)
When Hornigold took advantage of the offer from the British government, Edward stole and took command of his own ship and formed his own crew. Though Edward Teach was the name he was given at birth, there is one name that he rose to fame with. That name would be Blackbeard, one of the most popular and notorious pirates that existed during this time. Another one that may be recognized is “Smoking Blackbeard.” You may be wondering how he came across these nicknames and how people started using it as his identity. It all stories reasons are understandable:
A tall man with a booming voice, Teach deliberately developed a terrifying appearance.
He had an enormous black beard, which he tied up with black ribbons and twisted into braids. According to some accounts, it covered his entire face and grew down to his waist. Before going into battle, he tucked pieces of hempen rope (rope made from fibers of the hemp plant)—which were soaked in saltpeter and lit—into his hair. The slow-burning chords of rope gave off clouds of thick black smoke that gave him the appearance of a living demon. Captain Charles Johnson, the author of a pirate history that was published six years after Teach's death, wrote what is probably the best-known description of the infamous pirate: "Captain Teach assumed the cognomen [nickname] of Black-beard, from that large quantity of hair, which, like a frightful meteor, covered his whole face, and frightened America more than any comet that has appeared there in a long time." (“Blackbeard”)
Not only was his smoking beard a distinguishing feature of his, but he was also identifiable by all of his weapons and clothes. He was known to have many swords, knives, and pistols to his disposal, and would always wear a feathered tricorn hat.
(Ullian)
Blackbeard has been said to have traveled to many different lands, seas, and oceans. He mostly traveled around the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, American Colonies, West Indies, and most likely more. Martinique is one of the more important places he has visited, this is where he captured a slaveship named La Concorde. After he captured this ship, he decided to turn this into his own ship and named it Queen Anne’s Revenge.
The next noteworthy appearance would be his showing were off the Turneffe islands in the bay of Honduras. It was there that Blackbeard captured the sloop Adventure, forcing the sloop’s captain, David Herriot, to join him. Sailing east once again the pirates passed near the Cayman Islands and captured a Spanish Sloop off Cuba that they also added to their flotilla.
Turning north and continuing on his adventures of being a pirate captain, most likely being the location he made most of his pillaging and plundering would be Charleston, South Carolina of the United States.
This event has been said to be the Blockade of Charleston.
Around the end of May in 1718, Blackbeard had entered the Charleston harbor with his ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, and three lighter vessels. He had plundered five merchant freighters that were trying to enter or leave the port. Other vessels would not transit the harbor in fear of encountering the pirate squadron. On one of the more important ships that Blackbeard captured in the harbor was a group of eminent Charleston citizens, including Samuel Wragg. The people were held hostage for a very interesting ransom, this was a chest of medicines.
Due partly to his envoys’ preference for carousing rather than bargaining, the demand took many days to be delivered. Evidently, those who were held hostage by Blackbeard, were nearly murdered by Blackbeard himself. The medicines were eventually delivered and the prisoners were not harmed but most likely very frightened. Blackbeard’s squadron then escaped the harbor and traveled
northward.
Without further ado a while later, Blackbeard ran two of his vessels on solid land at Topsail Inlet (now Beaufort Inlet), including the Queen Anne's Revenge. He has been denounced by many, including his own particular group, of doing this intentionally with a specific end goal to scale back his team and increment his own offer of the fortune. Consider or not, he stripped three of the boats of all fortune, stranded or marooned the vast majority of his team, and went to Bath, North Carolina, where he at long last accepted a pardon under the royal Act of Grace. He then went off to Ocracoke Inlet in the remainder of his four vessels, the sloop Adventure, to enjoy his loot. (Ullian)
Lastly, our final destination. This place is where he had fought until he could fight no longer; Ocracoke Inlet on the North Carolina coast. This may also be called the place of his last stand. Having accepted the pardon:
“Teach had apparently retired from piracy. However, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia became concerned that the notorious freebooter lived nearby. Spotswood decided to eliminate Blackbeard, even though he lived outside of Spotswood's jurisdiction.” (Ullian)
Blackbeard worked in beach front waters; it was troublesome for boats of the line to draw in him in fight. In that capacity, two littler smaller sloops were hence put under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard, with directions from Spotswood to chase down and destroy Blackbeard, offering a reward of £100, and littler totals for the lesser team individuals. Maynard cruised from James River on November 11, 1718, in summon of thirty men from HMS Pearl, a 42-gun fourth-rate of the Royal Navy, and twenty-five men and a sailor of HMS Lyme, a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, and in order of the contracted sloops, the Ranger and Jane (incidentally authorized as His Majesty's Ships to stay away from allegations of theft themselves). Maynard found the privateers moored in a North Carolina channel on the internal side of Ocracoke Island, on the night of November 21. Maynard and his men chosen to hold up until the next morning on the grounds that the tide would be more positive. Blackbeard's Adventure had a team of just nineteen, "Thirteen white and six Negroes", as answered to the Admiralty. A little vessel was sent ahead at sunrise, was terminated upon, and immediately withdrawn. Blackbeard's prevalent learning of the bay was of much help, despite the fact that he and his group had been savoring his lodge the night earlier. For the duration of the night Blackbeard sat tight for Maynard to make his turn. Blackbeard cut his grapple link and immediately endeavored to move towards a limited channel. Maynard made pursue; however his sloops ran ashore, and there was a yelled trade between commanders. Maynard's record says, "At our first salutation, he drank Damnation to me and my Men, whom he stil'd Cowardly Puppies, saying, He would neither give nor take Quarter", although many different versions of the dialogue exist.
In the long run, Maynard's sloops could skim openly once more, and he started to push towards Blackbeard, since the wind was not sufficiently solid at the ideal opportunity for setting sail. When they happened upon Blackbeard's Adventure, they were hit with an overwhelming broadside assault. Midshipman Hyde, commander of the littler HMS Jane, was murdered alongside six other men. Ten men were additionally injured in the unexpected assault. The sloop fell toward the back and was little help in the accompanying activity. Maynard proceeded with his interest in HMS Ranger, figuring out how to impact the Adventure's gear, constraining it aground. Maynard requested large portions of his group into the holds and prepared to be boarded. As his ship drew closer, Blackbeard saw the mostly empty decks, expected it was sheltered to board, and did as such with ten men. (Ullian)
In the end, despite the pirates efforts, Blackbeard was killed putting an end to the battle. He was, as told by reports, shot five times and penetrated by a knife over twenty times before he died, then apparently decapitated. After this, legends sprang up about his death right after. It is said that the headless body of Blackbeard was thrown overboard and began to swim two to seven times around his ship before sinking. Another legend says that Blackbeard’s head was taken as a trophy by Maynard and tied to the bowsprit of his ship.
Even after all of the terror from this magnificent battle, Maynard still only received the inadequate prize of £100 from Spotswood. Blackbeard head then later hung from a pike in Bath, North Carolina.