Blackbeard

Edward Teach—also spelled Thatch, Thach, Thache, Thack, Tack, Thatche, or Theach—lived from about 1680 until 22 November (3 December New Style) 1718. Far better known as Blackbeard, this English pirate worked the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain’s North American colonies, and he is still one of history’s most famous pirates.

Almost nothing is certain about his early years. He was probably born around 1680, making him 35 to 40 when he died. Contemporary records most often call him Blackbeard, Edward Thatch, or Edward Teach; the last spelling comes from the only North American newspaper of the time, *The Boston News-Letter*, but people who actually met him wrote “Thatch” or similar variants. One unsupported claim gives his surname as Drummond, but pirates routinely used false names to protect their families, so his real name may never be known. He could almost certainly read and write—he corresponded with merchants, and after his death a letter from Tobias Knight, the Chief Justice and Secretary of the Province of Carolina, was found among his possessions. Author Robert Lee suggested this might mean Teach came from a respectable, wealthy family. He may have arrived in the Caribbean near the end of the 1600s on a merchant or slave ship. The 18th-century writer Charles Johnson said Teach had served as a sailor on privateers from Jamaica during the War of the Spanish Succession, where he “had often distinguished himself for his uncommon boldness and personal courage.” When exactly he joined that war is unknown, as is most of his life before piracy.

The West Indies, with its mix of colonialism, trade, and piracy, was the setting for many maritime incidents in the 1600s and 1700s. Early in the 18th century, the privateer-turned-pirate Henry Jennings and his followers chose the uninhabited island of New Providence as a base. Its harbour was near the busy shipping lanes of the Florida Strait and could hold hundreds of ships, but it was too shallow for the Royal Navy’s larger vessels. Author George Woodbury called New Providence “no city of homes. It was a place of temporary sojourn and refreshment for a literally floating population,” adding that only pirate camp followers, traders, and hangers-on lived there permanently. For pirates, it offered a safe haven from the law.

Teach was one of those who took advantage of the island. Probably soon after the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, he moved there from Jamaica and, like many former privateers, turned to piracy. Around 1716 he joined the crew of Captain Benjamin Hornigold, a well-known pirate operating from New Providence. Hornigold soon put Teach in command of a captured sloop. In early 1717, the two captains sailed for the mainland, each in a sloop. They seized a boat carrying 120 barrels of flour from Havana, then took 100 barrels of wine from another vessel.

Teach captured a French slave ship called *La Concorde*, renamed her *Queen Anne’s Revenge*, mounted 40 guns on her, and crewed her with more than 300 men. His nickname came from his thick black beard and intimidating look; he was said to have tucked lit slow matches under his hat to scare his enemies. He formed a pirate alliance and blockaded the port of Charles Town, South Carolina, ransoming its people. After that, he ran *Queen Anne’s Revenge* aground on a sandbar near Beaufort, North Carolina. He split from Stede Bonnet and settled in Bath Town, North Carolina, where he accepted a royal pardon. But he soon returned to sea, catching the attention of Virginia’s governor, Alexander Spotswood. Spotswood sent a party of soldiers and sailors to capture him. On 22 November (3 December New Style) 1718, after a fight at Ocracoke Inlet, Teach and several of his crew were killed by a small force led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard. In November 1996, divers found the wreck of *Queen Anne’s Revenge* in Beaufort Inlet off the North Carolina coast.

Teach was a shrewd, calculating leader who avoided violence, relying on his fearsome image to get what he wanted from those he robbed. After his death, he was romanticised and became the model for the archetypal pirate in countless works of fiction.