Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate
Angus Konstam

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-travelled 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 best-seller 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 amongst them. The early 18th century book became a best-seller, and 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 movie makers, and in recent years the swashbuckling pirate films of the 1930's have taken on a new lease of life. Johnson's description of Blackbeard could have been taken straight from the actor's 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 like 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 down to his appearance, which was highly distinctive, and which fitted 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" at 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 amongst 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 a force consisting of 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 which represented the peak of piratical activity in the Americas. It also represented a turning point – the great upsurge of piracy following the end of a long war with between Britain, France and Spain reached its peak during Blackbeard's time, and afterwards the threat diminished, as the few pirates who remained left American waters for fresh hunting grounds on the far side of the world.

Indeed the so-called 'Golden Age of Piracy', a phrase first conjured up by Captain Johnson in 1724 was meant to encompass the period from about 1697, when the last of the buccaneers ended their attacks on the Spanish to around 1726, when the last mass hanging of pirates took place. In fact the peak of piratical activity was concentrated in a far shorter period; from 1713 when another war ended, until 1722, when the crew of Bartholomew Roberts were hung en masse on the West African coast. In the waters of colonial America the worst phase lasted from 1716 until 1720, a period which saw the development of the Bahamas as a pirate stronghold, then the establishment of British rule in the islands, and the subsequent eradication of Bahamian piracy. Blackbeard was very much one of these Bahamian pirates, even though he quit the islands in 1717 when they were at their peak as a pirate haven, and he never returned. The story of Blackbeard therefore mirrors the story of this pirate crisis.

The idea behind this book is to seek out the real man behind this dramatic façade, and to try and understand why he took to piracy, how he managed to excel as a leader of cutthroats, and why his piratical career reached such a spectacular and blood-soaked finale. For someone like Blackbeard a conventional historical narrative isn't really enough. The life he led and the world he lived in was too different from our own for that. In order to understand Blackbeard the pirate, we need to become conversant with Blackbeard's profession, and the role piracy played in the era he lived in. What I've done is to intersperse chapters of narrative history with others which delve a little deeper into the maritime world Blackbeard lived in, allowing readers to become conversant with such things as pirate havens, how pirates operated, how they structured their crews, and what impact they had on colonial America. I hope you find the result as much fun to read as it was to research and write.