Blackbeard

Angus Konstam

Description

"A thorough, exciting examination of 18th-century pirate life,with wonderful details."
--Publishers Weekly

"Interesting and exciting . . . a thoroughly enjoyable chronicle of an interesting life and interesting era."
--Booklist

The definitive biography of history'smost fearsome and famous pirate

Of all the colorful cutthroats who scoured the seas in search of plunder during the Golden Age of Piracy in the early eighteenth century, none was more ferocious or notorious than Blackbeard. As unforgettable as his savage career was, much of Blackbeard's life has been shrouded in mystery--until now.

Drawing on vivid descriptions of Blackbeard's attacks from his rare surviving victims, pirate expert Angus Konstam traces Blackbeard's career from its beginnings to his final defeat in a tremendous sea battle near his base at Ocracoke Island. Presenting dramatic accounts of the pirate's very effective tactics and his reputation for cruelty, Konstam offers a fascinating examination of the life and business of piracy and the lure of this brutal and bloody trade.
Preface.

Acknowledgments.

A Date with History.

1 The Pirate Apprentice.

2 A Pirate’s Life.

3 The Scourge of the Caribbean.

4 Mixing with the Wrong Crowd.

5 The Devil Off Charles Town.

6 A Cutthroat Business.

7 The Lord of the Outer Banks.

8 Trouble in the Colonies.

9 The Last Battle.

10 The Blackbeard Legacy.

Notes.

Selected Bibliography.

Index.

Sujets

• Historical
• Lettres et linguistique
• Angus Konstam
• Biography
• Golden Age of Piracy
• Blackbeard
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 21 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470309209
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

B LACKBEARD
Other Works by Angus Konstam
The History of Pirates
Pirates
The Pirate Ship, 1660-1730
Pirates: Terror on the High Seas
Privateers and Pirates, 1730-1830
Elizabethan Sea Dogs
Buccaneers
Ghost Ships: Tales of Abandoned, Doomed, and Haunted Vessels
Historical Atlas of Exploration
The History of Shipwrecks
Spanish Galleon, 1530-1690
Hunt the Bismarck
Duel of the Ironclads: USS Monitor and CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, 1862
Lepanto, 1571: The Greatest Naval Battle of the Renaissance
The Renaissance War Galley, 1470-1590
Historical Atlas of the Viking World
The Civil War: A Visual Encyclopaedia
Atlas of the Celtic World
The Spanish Armada, 1588
Atlas of Medieval Europe
B LACKBEARD
America s Most Notorious Pirate
Angus Konstam
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 2006 by Angus Konstam. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
Photo Credits: pages vi, 10, 46, 71, 105, 109, 118, 121, 158, 168, 188, 195, 235, and 292: reprinted from Captain Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pirates (London, 1726, reprinted by Lyon s Press, NY, 1998); pages 54 and 106: reprinted from 1725 Dutch edition of Captain Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pirates; pages 37 and 140-141: Stratford Archive; page 82: Courtesy of John de Bry; page 213: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; pages 20, 29, 65, 131, 149, 177, 204, 227, 248, 260, and 279: author s collection.
Wiley Bicentennial Logo: Richard J. Pacifico
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Konstam, Angus, date. Blackbeard : America s most notorious pirate / Angus Konstam. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 978-0-471-75885-3 (cloth) ISBN: 978-0-470-12821-3 (paper) 1. Teach, Edward, d. 1718. 2. Pirates-North Carolina-Atlantic Coast-Biography. 3. Pirates-Virginia-Atlantic Coast-Biography. 4. North Carolina-History-Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. 5. Virginia-History-Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. 6. Atlantic Coast (N.C.) - History-18th century. 7. Atlantic Coast (Va.) - History-18th century. I. Title. F257.T422K66 2006 975.5 02092-dc22 [B] 2005036438
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
A Date with History

1 The Pirate Apprentice
2 A Pirate s Life
3 The Scourge of the Caribbean
4 Mixing with the Wrong Crowd
5 The Devil Off Charles Town
6 A Cutthroat Business
7 The Lord of the Outer Banks
8 Trouble in the Colonies
9 The Last Battle
10 The Blackbeard Legacy

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Blackbeard, from an early-eighteenth-century engraving used to illustrate the 1726 version of Captain Johnson s General History.
Preface
I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a handbarrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails; and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. That was how Jim Hawkins described his first encounter with a pirate in Robert Louis Stevenson s Treasure Island. His description of Billy Bones could have referred to any well-traveled seaman during the Golden Age of Piracy. What made Billy Bones special was that he had once shipped with Captain Flint, the most evil, cruel, and dastardly pirate ever to sail the Seven Seas. Stevenson clearly had a role model for Flint, the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed. To show just how bad Stevenson s pirate was, the author added, Blackbeard was a child to Flint. When the Scottish author wrote his pirate bestseller in 1883, he understood that most readers would pick up the reference and would know who Blackbeard was.
This is hardly a surprise. In 1724, when the mysterious Captain Johnson first published his catalog of pirates, Blackbeard featured prominently among them. The early-eighteenth-century book became a bestseller, and it is still in print today, supported by countless books on pirates, ranging from academic studies to children s fiction. In the last century it also inspired moviemakers, and in recent years the swashbuckling pirate films of the 1930s have taken a new lease on life. Johnson s description of Blackbeard could have been taken straight from the actors notes for Pirates of the Caribbean: In time of Action, he wore a Sling over his Shoulders, with three brace of Pistols, hanging from Holsters like Bandaliers; he wore a Fur-Cap, and stuck a lighted Match on each Side, under it, which appearing on each side of his Face, his Eyes naturally looking Fierce and Wild, made him altogether such a Figure, that Imagination cannot form an idea of a Fury, from hell, to look more frightful.
It is ironic that today, while few people remember the names of the other characters in this story, such as Alexander Spotswood, they know about Blackbeard. Charles Eden, Ellis Brand, Robert Maynard, and Tobias Knight have all but faded from the pages of history, while even Woodes Rogers is a name almost unknown outside the ranks of pirate aficionados. Blackbeard s contemporaries, such as Benjamin Hornigold, Charles Vane, Stede Bonnet, and Henry Jennings, never managed to capture the public imagination, while Calico Jack Rackam is only remembered through his association with the far more sensational female pirates in his crew, Anne Bonny and Mary Reade.
Other pirates were more successful than Blackbeard. Henry Every captured a ship filled with the treasures of an Indian prince, and retired to tell the tale. Bartholomew Roberts was arguably the most successful occidental pirate of them all, capturing more than five times the prizes secured by Blackbeard or any other pirate of the Golden Age. However, it was Blackbeard who caught the public imagination - and who remains our archetypal pirate of the era. The reason for this may be attributed to his appearance, which was highly distinctive, and fit the image the general public had of pirates of this time. In a large proportion of the pirate books out there on the shelves, Blackbeard features on the cover-an instantly recognizable figure who screams ferocious pirate to whoever picks up the book. In the public imagination, Blackbeard is the ultimate pirate captain, regardless of what he actually did during his short, brutish career.
This emphasis on Blackbeard s appearance and personality hides the fact that the man was a highly successful pirate. Although his career as an independent pirate captain lasted less than a year and a half, his actions shook the very foundations of British rule in colonial America. While he was operating in the Caribbean, Blackbeard was little more than a major irritant-one of several pirate captains who fought their own private war among the islands and shoals of the West Indies. However, his blockade of Charles Town (Charleston) was something different. His actions paralyzed the port, bringing maritime trade to a halt. While this caused a crisis in the colony of South Carolina, Blackbeard s blockade had an equally dramatic impact further up the coast.
At the time Blackbeard commanded several ships and several hundred men. With a force like that at his disposal he could repeat his success off Charleston anywhere else along North America s Atlantic seaboard. For a brief period he became America s bogeyman, and nobody knew where he would strike next. Although the crisis passed, the rulers and merchants of colonial America weren t going to forget Blackbeard in a hurry. Until his death he remained a nascent threat-the one man they knew who could bring their fragile colonial economy to its knees. This all took place in 1718-the year that represented the peak of piratical activity in the Americas. It also represented a turning point-the great upsurge of piracy following the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13) between Britain, France, and Spain reached its peak during Blackbeard s time, and af