The History of Blackbeard
Edward Teach, more commonly known as Blackbeard, is perhaps the world’s most famous pirate. Immortalized in countless pieces of fiction, his exploits are still being told over three hundred years after his death. However, as more research is completed, it becomes increasingly clear that very little is known about Teach himself. Even the spelling of his name is up for debate, with historical records referring to him as Teach, Thache, Thatch, and more phonetic iterations of what is essentially the same name. Much of what is accepted as fact regarding Teach comes from Captain Charles Johnson’s 1724 book A General History of the Pyrates which, while popular, has been proven to be fairly inaccurate. There are theories that Johnson, who was also likely writing under a pseudonym, was paid by the British government to slander Teach as part of its effort to stop the spread of piracy. There is also evidence that Johnson intentionally “altered A General History to produce a more exciting and colorful account of pirates and their exploits, thereby producing more badly needed sales to alleviate his legal and political troubles.”1 As a result, many sources must be compiled in order to uncover the story of the pirate Blackbeard. For clarity, the man Blackbeard will be referred to as “Teach” while theories about his origin will use other phonetic spellings of the name.
Familial Origins
Baylus C. Brooks, a maritime and colonial historian based in North Carolina, published an article in 2015 titled “”Born in Jamaica, of Very Credible Parents” or “A Bristol Man Born”? Excavating the Real Edward Thache, “Blackbeard the Pirate,”” which analyzed primary sources in an attempt to discover the true origins of the man. Although Brooks acknowledged that his conclusions were not absolute, he did provide a convincing hypothesis as to Teach’s background. Using genealogical records, Brooks proposed that Teach had familial connections to both Jamaica and England. Evidence shows a Thache family living in Jamaica at the right point in history,2 which in all likelihood could have been Teach’s relations. The Jamaican records characterize the family as being “quite patrician,”3 which also might be an argument against Teach’s reputation as immoral and villainous. Adding to this, a ship captain named Edward Vernon who lived in Jamaica between 1708 and 1712 knew the Thache family well and wrote that Blackbeard was indeed born in Jamaica.4 Supporting this are records of an Edward Thache, a mariner by trade whose son, Edward Thache Jr., would have been the same age as Teach.
Thache Jr. served in the Royal Navy aboard the HMS Windsor beginning in 1706 and, upon the death of his father, bequeathed his inheritance to his stepmother and step siblings living in Jamaica.5 As these were the only Thaches living in Jamaica at that time, it can be assumed that if Teach did indeed have a Jamaican origin, any Thache records were probably for his family.6 The other theory that Brooks outlines is that of Teach having an origin in England, specifically Bristol. Records from a church parish in Stonehouse, Glouscester show the birth of an Edward Thache on June 14, 1659 who later moved to Jamaica.7 According to Brooks, it is possible, if not probably, that this Edward Thache was the same as was found in Jamaica.8 While again much of this evidence is circumstantial and not enough for a confident conclusion, it is highly possible that Teach had familial origins in both England and Jamaica. The fact that Edward Thache Jr. had naval experience is also important, as it provides context for Teach’s decision to engage in piracy.
Actions as Blackbeard
The earliest primary source related to Teach’s activities is a deposition by Captain Henry Timberlake, captain of the brigantine Lamb, written on December 17, 1716.12 Timberlake deposed that several days before, he and his ship had been taken by pirates roughly 25 miles off the coast of Hispaniola, which is present day Haiti.13 He was first boarded by Benjamin Hornigold, then Teach, and robbed of most of his ship’s stores of food and material goods.14
“That in about an hour after Hornigole Boarded him Edward Thach Comander of another Sloop, the name whereof this Deponent knows not mounted with Eight Guns & manned with about ninety men came alongside the said Brigantine and Sent their Canoa with Several hands on board her and plundered her. That the said Hornigole and the said other Sloop took from this Deponent Three Barrills of Porke, one of Beef, two of pease, three of Markrill, five Barrills of onions Several Dozen Caggs of oysters most of this Cloaths and all his Ships Stores Except about fforty Biskets and a very Small quantity of meat just to bring them in and threw Some of their Staves over board.”
Deposition of Captain Henry Timberlake, December 17, 171615
Other sources show that Teach had joined Hornigold, a pirate, in 1715 in an attempt to find gold in a Spanish shipwreck off the coast of Florida.16 By late 1716, Hornigold and Teach were working together in two sloops with eight guns each, commanding a total of ninety men.17 The next spring, in 1717, Hornigold and Teach sailed from Jamaica to South Carolina, taking several ships along the way and adding a new pirate to the crew, a man named Stede Bonnet.18 In November of that year, Teach captured La Concorde, a French slave ship en route from west Africa to Martinique.19 Teach renamed the ship Queen Anne’s Revenge after the war between England and France and as an insult to King George I, whom Teach had no love for.20 More armaments were also added to the ship, which had originally been armed with 24-26 guns21 and 14-16 cannons.22 According to a deposition given by first lieutenant François Ernaud, ten of the crew of La Concorde were forced to join the pirates while some went willingly.23 The pirates left the enslaved Africans with the French crew, depositing them on a nearby shore, but took twenty pounds of gold dust from the hold, fourteen ounces of which were cargo and the rest of which belonged individually to the captain and other officers.24 Teach would use this ship for his exploits until his death in 1718. There have been claims that Hornigold allowed Teach to capture La Concorde, however a deposition given by the captain of La Concorde, Pierre Dosset, specifically noted that Hornigold’s vessel, Ranger, was not present.25 Shortly after claiming La Concorde as his own, Teach and his fellow pirates attacked and robbed the sloop Margaret near Puerto Rico, stealing arms, animals, and material goods from the ship.26
There is a lull in records of Teach’s actions from this point until May 1718, at which point Teach and his flotilla, which consisted of three captured sloops and Queen Anne’s Revenge, arrived in Charles Town, South Carolina and blockaded the port.30 After a week, the city paid a ransom and Teach departed. From there, Teach likely sailed to North Carolina, where on June 10, he grounded Queen Anne’s Revenge in Beaufort Inlet.31 At this time, Teach also marooned the crew of Adventure, one of the ships in his flotilla. David Herriot, the captain of the ship, deposed the following:
“[Blackbeard] ordered this deponent, with about sixteen more, to be put on shore on a small Sandy Hill or Bank, a League distant from the Main; on which Place there was no Inhabitant, nor Provisions. Where this Deponent [Herriot] and the rest remained two Nights and one Day, and expected to perish; for that said Thatch took away their Boat.”
Deposition of Captain David Herriot32
It is unclear why Teach abandoned this crew, however the evidence shows that he was intentional with the location of the marooning; the island had wildlife and was sure to be passed by Bonnet as he sailed from South Carolina, thus ensuring the rescue of the men.33 During the summer of 1718, Teach took the pardon offered by King George I in his efforts to stop piracy, although Teach quickly resumed his illegal activities.34 There is little primary source record of specific actions, but his actions were well enough known that Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia ordered members of the Royal Navy to locate Teach in North Carolina and kill him.35 Their efforts were successful as on November 22, 1718, Teach was killed at Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina.36
“This is to acquaint you, that I sail’d from Virginia the 17th past, with two Sloops, and 54 Men under my Command, having no Guns, but only small Arms and Pistols. Mr. Hyde commanded the little Sloop with 22 Men, and I had 32 in my Sloop. The 22d I came up with Captain Teach, the notorious Pyrate, who has taken, from time to time, a great many English Vessels on these Coasts, and in the West-Indies; he went by the name of Blackbeard, because he let his Beard grow, and tied it up in black Ribbons. I attack’d him at Cherhock in North-Carolina, when he had on Board 21 Men, and nine Guns mounted. At our first Salutation, he drank Damnation to me and my Men, whom he stil’d Cowardly Puppies, saying, He would neither give nor take Quarter. Immediately we engagd, and Mr. Hyde was unfortunately kill’d, and five of his Men wounded in the little Sloop, which, having no-body to command her, fell a-stern, and did not come up to assist me till the Action was almost over. In the mean time, continuing the Fight, it being a perfect Calm, I shot away Teach’s Gib, and his Fore-Halliards, forcing him ashoar, I boarded his Sloop, and had 20 Men kill’d and wounded. Immediately thereupon, he enter’d me with 10 Men; but 12 stout Men I left there, fought like Heroes, Sword in Hand, and they kill’d every one of them that enter’d, without the loss of one Man on their Side, but they were miserably cut and mangled. In the whole, I had eight Men killed, and 18 wounded. We kill’d 12, besides Blackbeard, who fell with five Shot in him, and 20 dismal Cuts in several Parts of his Body. I took nine Prisoners, mostly Negroes, all wounded. I have cut Blackbeard’s Head off, which I have put on my Bowspright, in order to carry it to Virginia. I should never have taken him, if I had not got him in such a Hole, whence he could not get out, for we had no Guns on Board; so that the Engagement on our Side was the more Bloody and Desperate.”
Letter by Lieutenant Maynard, who led the expedition against Teach, on December 17, 171838
The History of Queen Anne’s Revenge
History as La Concorde
Before being taken by Blackbeard in November 1717, the ship most popularly known as Queen Anne’s Revenge was a French slave ship called La Concorde de Nantes.39 The ship was a 100 foot long frigate with three masts, and had either been built for or purchased by René Montaudouin in 1710.40 Montaudouin was a prominent French slave trader based out of Nantes, France, but due to Queen Anne’s War also worked as a privateer, sailing at least one privateering cruise on La Concorde.41 Once the war ended in 1713, Montaudouin resumed work as a slaver, using La Concorde to carry out three trips between France and west Africa, the third of which was interrupted by Teach and his crew.
As a French slave ship, La Concorde traveled between three locations. First, it departed from Nantes, France, carrying goods to trade such as textiles, alcohol, tobacco, and guns, then made its way to west Africa, where it would trade its goods and pick up enslaved Africans.42 From the coast of west Africa, La Concorde sailed to the Caribbean, making further trades with French colonies located there.43 Finally, it would return to France.44 The first slave voyage made by La Concorde was completed between 1713 and 1714, and the second between 1715 and 1716.45
On March 24, 1717, La Concorde departed from Nantes, France for its third voyage, reaching the port of Juda on the west coast of Africa on July 8, 1717.46 On this trip, the ship’s crew consisted of between 73 and 75 men, led by Captain Pierre Dosset, Second Captain Charles Baudin, and First Lieutenant François Ernaud.47 La Concorde remained in port in Juda for several months, during which time the French slavers acquired 516 enslaved Africans and gold dust.48 According to Sarah Watkins-Kenney, the lab director for the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck site, when La Concorde departed from Juda on October 9, 1717, “there were almost six hundred people aboard a ship that was approximately one hundred feet in length, twenty-eight feet in breadth, with a twelve-foot hold depth, and twenty-five feet deep from its top deck to the bottom of the hold.”49 During the voyage, sixty-one Africans and sixteen French died as a result of the poor conditions and dangers of sea travel.50
Tools of the Slave Trade
“Since 1997, much of the research has focused on Queen Anne’s Revenge the pirate vessel, even though it sailed under this name for only about six months, from November 1717 to June 1718. Its history as La Concorde, from 1710 to 1717, was much longer and had far more devastating consequences for many more people than her passing role as a pirate ship”
Sarah Watkins-Kenney, Queen Anne’s Revenge Shipwreck Site Lab Director51
At the time that La Concorde was being built, the slave trade was a massive aspect of the European economy. A few decades before, in 1677, which administered French territories in Africa, financed the capture of Gorée Island off the coast of Senegal from the Dutch.52 As a result, the company was given control over the entire African coast, making France a major player in the European slave trade.53 Nantes, the city where La Concorde was based, was the primary port used for such trade in France, and the Montaudouin privateer who purchased La Concorde was a member of the largest French slaving family.54 Between 1708 and 1790, the Montaudouin family sent out sixty slave voyages, of which La Concorde completed two; this was the most of any other French family participating in the slave trade.55
The horrors of the middle-passage of the trans-atlantic slave trade have often been left undiscussed both by historians and those who lived through it. The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano Cugoano, a former enslaved man and abolitionist writer, contains one of the fullest accounts of the conditions of the passage. He wrote that the “loathsome smells … the filth of the necessary tubs … the shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.”56 Necessary to achieve such inhumanity were the slave ships such as La Concorde which transported the captured Africans from their homes to those of Europeans.
The images above were representations of what typical slave ships of the time looked like. On such vessels, hundreds of enslaved Africans would be held, each given around five-six square feet of space, according to analysis completed by historian Charles Garland.60 Several physical modifications had to be made to ships in order to accommodate such high amounts of passengers. These changes were typically made while ships laid off the coast of Africa and its crew purchased the captive Africans.61 First, a ‘house’ would be built out of wood on the ship’s main deck; this would serve as a temporary living space for enslaved Africans and ran the length of the vessel.62 It was only needed until the ship was ready to sail from Africa, at which point the newly constructed ‘slave decks’ would be used.63 These were partial decks and platforms that were inserted in the space between the main and second deck, and the place where African captives would spend the majority of the middle passage.64
Such visual depictions of slave ships and the conditions on them served two purposes at the time in which they were made. Some, such as the illustration of Marie Seraphique and the accompanying data tables, were created at the request of the ship’s owner as documentation of the ship’s economic capability.65 The detail contained in the image allowed for the owner and others to see the organization aboard the ship, how many people, and how much cargo it could carry. In the case of the image of Marie Seraphique, this data is also conveyed in tables at the bottom, showing numerically how many captives were aboard the ship at various points in its journey.66 The other purpose of such illustrations was to fuel the outrage expressed by the abolitionist movement across Europe and North America.67 The image titled “Descriptions of a Slave Ship” was specifically used to “[instigate] an antislavery imagery”68 that would be used in arguments against its existence. By conveying the horrors of conditions on slave ships, abolitionists hoped to demonstrate the immorality of such a trade. The downside of this, however, was that the image presented was one of slavery, not of the enslaved; an individuality of humanity and experience was diluted in order to convey a wider message condemning those who participated in and profited from the slave trade.69 Despite this, the impact remained worthwhile. Over time, the abolitionist movement grew strength, and the slave trade was abolished in Europe and North America in the early nineteenth century.70
Although the images above are not specific representations of La Concorde, they do accurately depict the structure and conditions of the ship. At the time that La Concorde was captured by Teach, there were around six hundred people on board, over five hundred of which were captured Africans.71 Based on the ship’s measurements – one hundred feet in length, twenty-eight feet in breadth, with a twelve-foot hold depth, and twenty-five feet deep from its top deck to the bottom of the hold72 – the passengers would have been just as confined as what is shown by the images. Garland’s estimation of five square feet allotted to each captive is highly likely to be accurate, if not an overestimation. Such an acknowledgement of what the ship was used for before its time as Blackbeard’s flagship is vital, especially considering that many scholars have brushed this fact aside. As Sarah Watkins-Kenney points out, La Concorde did much more damage to many more people than Queen Anne’s Revenge ever did. And yet because of a widespread cultural fascination with the Golden Age of Piracy, only one narrative is told.
This is dangerous for many reasons, not the least of which is that it glorifies participants in a system of mass-murder that was in place for centuries. Although Teach did not directly take part in the transatlantic slave-trade, he did not intervene in the forced enslavement of hundreds of people when he captured La Concorde. Many other pirates had similar, peripheral interactions with slavery, with few acting to change it. Additionally, focusing only on the use of ships for piracy avoids the global interactions that those vessels had as elements of the transatlantic slave-trade, which was instrumental in shaping the modern world. In order to gain a full picture of how the ocean was used for malicious purposes, all actions must be acknowledged, even those which cannot be romanticized.
History as Queen Anne’s Revenge
On November 28, 1717, La Concorde was captured by Teach and his crew while en route to the French colony of Martinique in the Caribbean.73 It was at this point that the ship ceased being the French slaver La Concorde and became the pirate ship Queen Anne’s Revenge. Interestingly enough, however, this connection between the one ship with two names was not officially made until October 1718, in the indictment for Teach’s quartermaster, William Howard.74
“…Edwd Tach and other their Confederates and associates in the … ship called the Concord of St Malo and afterwards denominated by the said Pyrates by the name of Queen Anne’s Revenge…”
Indictment of William Howard, October 171875
As Teach’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge traveled where he did. After capturing it in the Caribbean, Teach next went to Puerto Rico, where he used Queen Anne’s Revenge in an attack and robbery of the sloop Margaret.77 Little is known about Teach’s actions and movements from this point until May 1718, when he and his flotilla arrived in the Charles Town port in South Carolina.78 After spending a week blockading the port, Teach most likely sailed straight for North Carolina, landing in Beaufort Inlet where on June 10, 1718, Queen Anne’s Revenge was run aground.79 The exact date is known as it is the last sighting of Queen Anne’s Revenge, noted by Captain Ellis Brand of the British naval ship HMS Lyme in a letter to the Board of Admiralty.80 The ship was not seen again until 1996, when it was uncovered by the commercial treasure-hunting company Intersal Inc.81
Footnotes
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 236.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 250.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 250.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 252.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 254.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 252.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 256.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 256.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 262.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 253.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 255.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 155.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 155.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 156.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 156.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 237.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 261.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 261-3.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 194-5.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 199.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 200.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 265.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 200.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 159.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 152.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 174.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 267.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 267.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 149.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 149.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 275.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Moore, “Captain Edward Thatch,” 179.
- Cooke, “British Newspaper Accounts,” 306.
- Patel, “Blackbeard Surfaces,” 22.
- Patel, “Blackbeard Surfaces,” 22.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 194-5.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 187.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 187.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 187.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 199.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 198.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 199.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 199.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 199.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names” 187.
- Beckles, “Slave Voyages,” 121.
- Beckles, “Slave Voyages,” 121.
- Beckles, “Slave Voyages,” 123.
- Beckles, “Slave Voyages,” 123.
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 158.
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 152.
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 154.
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 154.
- Garland, “The Allotment of Space,” 247.
- Webster, “Slave Ships and Maritime Archaeology,” 7-8.
- Webster, “Slave Ships and Maritime Archaeology,” 7-8.
- Webster, “Slave Ships and Maritime Archaeology,” 7-8.
- Webster, “Slave Ships and Maritime Archaeology,” 7-8.
- “Plan, Profile, and Layout.”
- “Plan, Profile, and Layout.”
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 153.
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 153.
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 153.
- Morgan, “Accounting for the ‘Most Excruciating Torment,’” 158.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 199.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 199.
- Books, “Born in Jamaica,” 265.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 186.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 186.
- “Blackbeard (Edward Teach).”
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 200.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 267.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 267.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship with Two Names,” 188.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308-9.
References for Blackbeard Timeline
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 254.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 254.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 237.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 237.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 261.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 307.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 261.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 263.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 200.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 267.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 274.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
References for Queen Anne’s Revenge Timeline
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 187.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 187.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 187.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 198.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 199.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 199.
- Brooks, “Born in Jamaica,” 265.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 187.
- Patel, “Blackbeard Surfaces,” 23.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 188.
- Watkins-Kenney, “A Tale of One Ship,” 186.
- Fontenoy, “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” 308.
