Blackbread Essay, Research Paper

Blackbeard could be called North Carolina s own pirate because he frequented this area in refuge. His original name was Edward Drummond and he began his career sailing out of his home port of Bristol, England. After he became a pirate he changed his name to Edward Teach, which is the name that most people relate to Blackbeard the Pirate. Some historians believe that his tendancies toward piracy came to him because of the enviroment that he grew up in. Bristol, England turned out more pirates in the early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than any other English port. ( Rankin, The Pirates of) Others believe that he may have been from noble decent. Nancy Roberts assumes that since few common people of that time possessed the skills of reading and writing, Teach came from an educated family because he was able to do both. (Roberts, Blackbeard and) Some historians believe that he was the son of a barmaid and a nobleman. His origin is obscure and even his true name has its doubts.

Legend says that Blackbeard was a big man and he used every bit of his intimidating stature to his advantage. He supposedly braided his beard into pigtails and tucked slow burning matches in the braids or behind his ears. This sent curls of smoke around his face creating the pirates biggest weapon, fear. He put daggers, pistols and his cutlass in his belt. Accrossed his chest he wore a sling in which three pistols were nestled all three were primed, cocked and ready to fire. To the sailors of the day, he was feared almost as much as the devil himself, and after seeing him in person many were sure that they were kin. ( Rankin, The Pirates Of)

Blackbeard s career began during Queen Anne s War which lasted from 1701 to 1713. After the war ended he crewed for Captain Honigold in the Grenadines and quickly became the captain s protoce. In November of 1717 they came across a merchant ship that was flying under a French flag. They eventually took the ship and when Hornigold retired he gave this ship to Blackbeard/Edward Teach, who quickly renamed the ship Queen Anne s Revenge .