Edward Teach

• Born: c. 1680
• Birthplace: Bristol, England
• Died: November 22, 1718
• Place of death: Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina

English pirate

Cause of notoriety: Piracy

Active: 1717-1718

Locale: Caribbean Sea, Atlantic coast of North America

Early Life

Edward Teach (teech) was born in Bristol, England, c. 1680. Little is known about his early life, but documents show his family was affluent. He was well educated and interacted comfortably with governors, merchants, and members of the upper class.

During his career as a pirate, Teach used many aliases to protect his family. He was best known as Blackbeard. He apparently served as a privateer apprentice in Jamaica during the War of Spanish Succession, although no “letter of marque” was recorded for him. Records of Teach as a pirate date to summer, 1717.

Criminal Career

Initially, Teach and pirate Ben Hornigold sailed together and spread great fear throughout the Caribbean. In November, 1717, they captured the French ship La Concorde off Martinique. About this time, Britain revoked all privateering licenses and offered amnesty to pirates. Hornigold retired, and Teach began piracy on his own. Teach claimed La Concorde for his flagship, renaming it Queen Anne’s Revenge.

In winter months, Teach sailed off the Atlantic coast and in the summer returned to the Caribbean. His first solo conquest involved the large ship Great Allen near St. Vincent. Legend reports that several days later Teach encountered the British man-of-war HMS Scarborough. While Teach could have outrun the Scarborough, he allegedly engaged in a running duel instead. The British were losing, and Teach allowed retreat because the ship held no valuables. The tale of this skirmish earned Teach much respect for defeating a heavily armed warship and contributed to his image as a fierce pirate. The log of the Scarborough, however, shows no encounter. During 1717-1718, Teach terrorized the Caribbean, capturing at least twelve ships and pillaging as many as twenty-five.

In 1718, Royal Governor Woodes Rogers killed or drove away all pirates on Nassau. Consequently, Teach sailed for the Atlantic coast of North America, commanding four vessels and three hundred pirates.

A charismatic leader with a dramatic personality, Teach cultivated an image to intimidate merchants and his crew. Wearing black clothing and carrying multiple swords, knives, and pistols, he appeared ferocious, braiding his long hair and growing a full black beard. For battle, he placed slow-burning fuses in his beard or under his hat, allowing smoke to encircle him. Some say this created the appearance of the devil. Merchants often surrendered at the sight of Blackbeard.

Teach mastered psychological warfare, but Blackbeard was not as cruel as most pirates. His common tactic was to run ships aground, fire warning shots, take valuables, and let the ship’s crew flee. In fact, no record exists of Teach murdering anyone until the battle resulting in his death.

In May, 1718, Teach blockaded Charles Towne, South Carolina. He and his men pillaged every ship in the harbor and took wealthy passengers from The Crowley as hostages. Ten ships were destroyed before officials gave Teach the medical supplies he demanded. Despite numerous threats, all hostages were released unharmed.

In June, 1718, Teach again sailed to North Carolina, planning to surrender to Governor Charles Eden, who represented the British throne. At Topsail Inlet near Beaufort, North Carolina, the Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground. The grounding was likely intentional as Teach sought to downsize his fleet. Reports show that while efforts were made to rescue the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Teach loaded his valuables onto another ship and escaped with riches and select members of his crew.

With his smaller ship, he continued to Bath, North Carolina, and acquired a home. He was pardoned, married Mary of Ormand, and appeared to settle into a planter’s life.

When the gold ran out, however, Blackbeard resumed pirating. He joined other pirates on Ocracoke Island for revelry and plundered ships off the Atlantic Coast. Local residents dreaded Blackbeard, distrusted Governor Eden, and feared the offshore islands and surrounding seas were becoming a pirate base. Indeed, Teach likely bribed Eden to overlook his piracy.

Legal Action and Outcome

North Carolina residents asked the governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, for protection from the general pirate menace and specifically from Blackbeard. Spotswood placed a bounty on Teach’s head and sent Lieutenant Robert Maynard to search for him.

Maynard, aboard a small, unarmed sloop, surprised Blackbeard and his crew of twenty-five at Ocracoke Inlet on November 22, 1718. Teach fired on Maynard’s ship, and Maynard bluffed by sending his crew below deck. Believing that only a few crew had survived the initial hit, Blackbeard boarded Maynard’s sloop. Teach, outnumbered by Maynard’s men, was drawn into hand-to-hand combat. He received at least five gunshot wounds and twenty stab injuries before he was decapitated. His head was displayed on the bowsprit of Maynard’s ship as a warning to other pirates. Thirteen of Blackbeard’ screw were captured and hanged in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Impact

Edward Teach’s career was glorious but short. The death of Blackbeard was the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. Separating the man from his legend is difficult. As the most feared pirate in the Western Hemisphere, Blackbeard created an enduring image of piracy. He has been the subject of books, movies, documentaries, and treasure hunts. Benjamin Franklin wrote a poem called “A Sailor’s Song on the Taking of Teach,” and Robert Louis Stevenson used Blackbeard’s crew member Israel Hands as inspiration for his book Treasure Island (1883). A tourist industry surrounding Blackbeard developed in Ocracoke, where the remains of the Queen Anne’s Revenge are believed to have been discovered off the coast.

Bibliography

Bond, Constance. “A Fury from Hell or Was He?” Smithsonium 30, no. 11 (2000): 62-95. Compares Blackbeard’s image with his behavior. Includes information on the discovery of the wreck thought to be the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Discusses social issues such as race and class in the piracy era.

Butler, Lindley S. Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Examines the lives of eight pirates from the early eighteenth century to Reconstruction, including Blackbeard. Provides useful photos and maps.

Lee, Robert E. Blackbeard the Pirate: A Reappraisal of His Life and Times. Winston-Salem, N.C.: Blair, 1974. A well-researched, authoritative study of the life of Teach. Extensive bibliography.

Yetter, George Humphrey. “When Blackbeard Scourged the Seas.” Colonial Williamsburg Journal 15, no. 1 (1992): 22-28. Provides a good overview of pirate life and specific details of Blackbeard’s career and last battle.