The Most Feared Pirate in History: Blackbeard - The True Story

Overview

Edward Thatch, known as Blackbeard, likely began his pirate career around 1717 under Captain Ben Hornigold in Nassau. He later commandeered Stede Bonnet's sloop, renaming it "Revenge." Blackbeard terrorized the American eastern seaboard and the Caribbean, capturing a French slave ship he renamed "Queen Anne's Revenge," which he used to attack from Guadeloupe to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1718, he blockaded Charleston, South Carolina, for ransom. After his flagship ran aground, possibly intentionally, he accepted a pardon in Bath, North Carolina, but soon returned to piracy. He was killed in a battle led by Lieutenant Maynard at Ocracoke Island, organized by Virginia's Governor Spotswood.