The Great Blackbeard comes upon the Stage
So long as the people of the Carolinas were prosperous and able to
capture and execute pirates who interfered with their trade the Atlantic
sea-robbers kept away from their ports, but this prosperity did not
last. Indian wars broke out, and in the course of time the colonies
became very much weakened and impoverished, and then it was that the
harbor of Charles Town began to be again interesting to the pirates.
About this time one of the most famous of sea-robbers was harassing the
Atlantic coast of North America, and from New England to the West
Indies, he was known as the great pirate Blackbeard. This man, whose
real name was Thatch, was a most terrible fellow in appearance as well
as action. He wore a long, heavy, black beard, which it was his fancy to
separate into tails, each one tied with a colored ribbon, and often
tucked behind his ears. Some of the writers of that day declared that
the sight of this beard would create more terror in any port of the
American seaboard than would the sudden appearance of a fiery comet.
Across his brawny breast he carried a sort of a sling in which hung not
less than three pairs of pistols in leathern holsters, and these, in
addition to his cutlass and a knife or two in his belt, made him a most
formidable-looking fellow.
Some of the fanciful recreations of Blackbeard show him to have been a
person of consistent purpose. Even in his hours of rest when he was not
fighting or robbing, his savage soul demanded some interesting
excitement. Once he was seated at table with his mate and two or three
sailors, and when the meal was over he took up a pair of pistols, and
cocking them put them under the table. This peculiar action caused one
of the sailors to remember very suddenly that he had something to do on
deck, and he immediately disappeared. But the others looked at their
captain in astonishment, wondering what he would do next. They soon
found out; for crossing the pistols, still under the table, he fired
them. One ball hit the mate in the leg, but the other struck no one.
When asked what he meant by this strange action, he replied that if he
did not shoot one of his men now and then they would forget what sort of
a person he was.
At another time he invented a game; he gathered his officers and crew
together and told them that they were going to play that they were
living in the lower regions. Thereupon the whole party followed him down
into the hold. The hatches and all the other openings were closed, and
then Blackbeard began to illuminate the scene with fire and brimstone.
The sulphur burned, the fumes rose, a ghastly light spread over the
countenances of the desperadoes, and very soon some of them began to
gasp and cough and implore the captain to let in some fresh air, but
Blackbeard was bound to have a good game, and he proceeded to burn more
brimstone. He laughed at the gasping fellows about him and declared that
he would be just as willing to breathe the fumes of sulphur as common
air. When at last he threw open the hatches, some of the men were almost
dead, but their stalwart captain had not even sneezed.
In the early part of the eighteenth century Blackbeard made his
headquarters in one of the inlets on the North Carolina coast, and there
he ruled as absolute king, for the settlers in the vicinity seemed to be
as anxious to oblige him as the captains of the merchantmen sailing
along the coast were anxious to keep out of his way. On one of his
voyages Blackbeard went down the coast as far as Honduras, where he took
a good many prizes, and as some of the crews of the captured vessels
enlisted under him he sailed north with a stronger force than ever
before, having a large ship of forty guns, three smaller vessels, and
four hundred men. With this little fleet Blackbeard made for the coast
of South Carolina, and anchored outside the harbor of Charles Town. He
well understood the present condition of the place and was not in the
least afraid that the citizens would hang him up on the shores of the
bay.
Blackbeard began work without delay. Several well-laden ships--the
Carolinians having no idea that pirates were waiting for them--came
sailing out to sea and were immediately captured. One of these was a
very important vessel, for it not only carried a valuable cargo, but a
number of passengers, many of them people of note, who were on their way
to England. One of these was a Mr. Wragg, who was a member of the
Council of the Province. It might have been supposed that when
Blackbeard took possession of this ship, he would have been satisfied
with the cargo and the money which he found on board, and having no use
for prominent citizens, would have let them go their way; but he was a
trader as well as a plunderer, and he therefore determined that the best
thing to do in this case was to put an assorted lot of highly
respectable passengers upon the market and see what he could get for
them. He was not at the time in need of money or provisions, but his men
were very much in want of medicines, so he decided to trade off his
prisoners for pills, potions, plasters, and all sorts of apothecary's
supplies.
He put three of his pirates in a boat, and with them one of the
passengers, a Mr. Marks, who was commissioned as Blackbeard's special
agent, with orders to inform the Governor that if he did not immediately
send the medicines required, amounting in value to about three hundred
pounds, and if he did not allow the pirate crew of the boat to return in
safety, every one of the prisoners would be hanged from the yard-arm of
his ship.
The boat rowed away to the distant town, and Blackbeard waited two days
for its return, and then he grew very angry, for he believed that his
messengers had been taken into custody, and he came very near hanging
Mr. Wragg and all his companions. But before he began to satisfy his
vengeance, news came from the boat. It had been upset in the bay, and
had had great trouble in getting to Charles Town, but it had arrived
there at last. Blackbeard now waited a day or two longer; but as no news
came from Mr. Marks, he vowed he would not be trifled with by the
impudent people of Charles Town, and swore that every man, woman, and
child among the prisoners should immediately prepare to be hanged.
Of course the unfortunate prisoners in the pirate ship were in a
terrible state of mind during the absence of Mr. Marks. They knew very
well that they could expect no mercy from Blackbeard if the errand
should be unsuccessful, and they also knew that the Charles Town people
would not be likely to submit to such an outrageous demand upon them; so
they trembled and quaked by day and by night, and when at last they were
told to get ready to be hanged, every particle of courage left them, and
they proposed to Blackbeard that if he would spare their lives, and that
if it should turn out that their fellow-citizens had decided to
sacrifice them for the sake of a few paltry drugs, they would take up
the cause of the pirates; they would show Blackbeard the best way to
sail into the harbor, and they would join with him and his men in
attacking the city and punishing the inhabitants for their hard-hearted
treatment of their unfortunate fellow-citizens.
This proposition pleased Blackbeard immensely; it would have been like a
new game to take Mr. Wragg to the town and make him fight his
fellow-members of the Council of the Province, and so he rescinded his
order for a general execution, and bade his prisoners prepare to join
with his pirates when he should give the word for an assault upon their
city.
In the meantime there was a terrible stir in Charles Town. When the
Governor and citizens received the insolent and brutal message of
Blackbeard they were filled with rage as well as consternation, and if
there had been any way of going out to sea to rescue their unhappy
fellow-citizens, every able-bodied man in the town would have enlisted
in the expedition. But they had no vessels of war, and they were not
even in a position to arm any of the merchantmen in the harbor. It
seemed to the Governor and his council that there was nothing for them
to do but to submit to the demands of Blackbeard, for they very well
knew that he was a scoundrel who would keep his word, and also that
whatever they did must be done quickly, for there were the three
swaggering pirates in the town, strutting about the streets as if they
owned the place. If this continued much longer, it would be impossible
to keep the infuriated citizens from falling upon these blustering
rascals and bringing their impertinence to a summary end. If this should
happen, it would be a terrible thing, for not only would Mr. Wragg and
his companions be put to death, but the pirates would undoubtedly attack
the town, which was in a very poor position for defence.
Consequently the drugs were collected with all possible haste, and Mr.
Marks and the pirates were sent with them to Blackbeard. We do not know
whether or not that bedizened cutthroat was satisfied with the way
things turned out; for having had the idea of going to Charles Town and
obliging the prisoners to help him confiscate the drugs and chemicals,
he may have preferred this unusual proceeding to a more commonplace
transaction; but as the medicine had arrived he accepted it, and having
secured all possible booty and money from the ships he had captured, and
had stripped his prisoners of the greater part of their clothing, he set
them on shore to walk to Charles Town as well as they could. They had a
miserably difficult time, making their way through the woods and
marshes, for there were women and children among them who were scarcely
equal to the journey. One of the children was a little boy, the son of
Mr. Wragg, who afterward became a very prominent man in the colonies. He
rose to such a high position, not only among his countrymen, but in the
opinion of the English government, that when he died, about the
beginning of the Revolution, a tablet to his memory was placed in
Westminster Abbey, which is, perhaps, the first instance of such an
honor being paid to an American.
Having now provided himself with medicines enough to keep his wild crew
in good physical condition, no matter how much they might feast and
frolic on the booty they had obtained from Charles Town, Blackbeard
sailed back to his North Carolina haunts and took a long vacation,
during which time he managed to put himself on very good terms with the
Governor and officials of the country. He had plenty of money and was
willing to spend it, and so he was allowed to do pretty much as he
pleased, provided he kept his purse open and did not steal from his
neighbors.
But Blackbeard became tired of playing the part of a make-believe
respectable citizen, and having spent the greater part of his money, he
wanted to make some more. Consequently he fitted out a small vessel, and
declaring that he was going on a legitimate commercial cruise, he took
out regular papers for a port in the West Indies and sailed away, as if
he had been a mild-mannered New England mariner going to catch codfish.
The officials of the town of Bath, from which he sailed, came down to
the ship and shook hands with him and hoped he would have good success.
After a moderate absence he returned to Bath, bringing with him a large
French merchant vessel, with no people on board, but loaded with a
valuable cargo of sugar and other goods. This vessel he declared he had
found deserted at sea, and he therefore claimed it as a legitimate
prize. Knowing the character of this bloody pirate, and knowing how very
improbable it was that the captain and all the crew of a valuable
merchant vessel, with nothing whatever the matter with her, would go out
into their boats and row away, leaving their ship to become the
property of any one who might happen along, it may seem surprising that
the officials of Bath appeared to have no doubt of the truth of
Blackbeard's story, and allowed him freely to land the cargo on the
French ship and store it away as his own property.
But people who consort with pirates cannot be expected to have very
lively consciences, and although there must have been persons in the
town with intelligence enough to understand the story of pitiless murder
told by that empty vessel, whose very decks and masts must have been
regarded as silent witnesses that her captain and crew did not leave her
of their own free will, no one in the town interfered with the thrifty
Blackbeard or caused any public suspicion to fall upon the propriety of
his actions.