Blackbeard

About Blackbeard

Edward Teach (IPA: [tɛtʃ]; c. 1689 – November 22, 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic during the early 18th century, a period referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy. His best known vessel was the Queen Anne's Revenge, which is believed to have run aground near Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina in 1718.

Blackbeard often fought, or simply showed himself, wearing a big feathered tricorn, and having multiple swords, knives, and pistols at his disposal. It was reported in the A General Historie of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates that he had hemp and lit matches woven into his enormous black beard during battle to intimidate his enemies. Blackbeard is often regarded as the archetypal image of the seafaring pirate.

Nothing is known about Blackbeard's early life. The best sources have Blackbeard's real name as Edward Teach. An alternative spelling is Edward Thatch; another name is Edward Drummond. Most think Blackbeard was born in Bristol, but some speculate London, Philadelphia, Jamaica, or Accomac County, Virginia as other possible places of birth. Teach went to sea at an early age. He served on an English ship in the War of the Spanish Succession which also included Queen Anne's war, privateering in the Spanish West Indies and along the Spanish Main. After Britain withdrew from the war in 1713, Teach, like many other privateers, turned to piracy. He got his first legs from the pirate Benjamin Hornigold, whose base was in Jamaica. When Hornigold decided to retire from piracy and took the Crown's offer of a pardon, Blackbeard refused the pardon, taking a ship Hornigold captured that same year, a French slave-ship named Le Concorde, (later research revealed that the ship was actually built in Britain)[citation needed] renaming it Queen Anne's Revenge. Some[who?] think that the name was a tribute to the war where he got his first taste of piracy, Queen Anne's War.