Blackbeard- The Birth of America

by Samuel Marquis

  Taking a deep breath, he stared out at his mostly unfriendly audience. His two foremost enemies, Ludwell and Blair, sat in the first row, glowering at him like pit bulls. While Spotswood and Ludwell had been at each other’s throats for more than three straight years now, the relationship between the governor and Blair, while admittedly strained over the years, had only recently escalated to the point of bitter enmity. He had lately drawn the particular ire of the head of the colonial church and president of William and Mary College over whether the Crown or Church reserved the right to appoint ministers to the Virginia parishes. Spotswood firmly believed that the right was reserved by the Crown, that church and state were one body and could only have but one head, and that as the King’s representative in the colony the governor should assign clergymen to their churches. The reverend, who believed in colonial self-determination, wanted the appointment of ministers to be in the hands of local churches in Virginia, while Spotswood, the army and empire man, sought to maintain autocratic British power and did not want to give up further ground to colonial freedom.

  At the back of the room, he spotted several more of his enemies: Carter, Smith, Grymes, and Corbin, all scowling and as unwelcoming as a pack of wolves. With consternation, he realized that the best he could hope for was that his opponents wouldn’t disrupt the proceedings. He prayed that they didn’t have some clever trick up their sleeves to undermine or embarrass him. Lately, many of the Assembly sessions had deteriorated to shouting matches between his supporters and detractors, with him sometimes having to play referee and sometimes having to shout down Ludwell and his cronies.

  “Gentlemen,” he began in the formal imperious tone of the Crown’s chief representative in Virginia, “once again, the safety and honor of the colony are at stake. We have survived the Indian troubles and have called upon the militia to defend our frontiers. But now we have a new threat in our midst. Pirates are once again threatening our coastal waters in large numbers. You’ve all heard about this so-called Blackbeard, the former Royal Navy officer known as Edward Thache, who blockaded Charles Town and then wrecked his ship in Old Topsail Inlet. The rogue is a murderer, a lout, and a thief and we don’t want his kind living among us here in the good colony of Virginia. And there are more like him sailing north into our harbors every day. With the forthcoming arrival of the Royal Navy and swearing in of Woodes Rogers as governor on New Providence any day now, the pirates of the Bahamas have dispersed like sea birds before a storm. From the Admiralty, we have learned that many of these rogues are heading in our direction in hopes of obtaining the King’s most gracious pardon. They are sneaking into the ports of Charles Town and Bath Town in the Carolinas, Philadelphia, and even here in Virginia, hoping to put their past crimes at sea behind them and go undetected. These pirates constitute a threat to our commerce and our very way of life, which is why I have issued today’s proclamation. Beginning on this date, July 10, 1718, all former pirates, immediately upon their arrival in Virginia, are to make themselves known to some justice of the peace or officer of the militia, to deliver up their arms, and not to travel or associate in a greater number than a company of three. This is what I believe we need in order to ensure that these villainous brutes do not try to recreate a pirate republic here in the colonies. That is why I have gathered you all here today, to make clear my formal policy in this regard, which goes into effect immediately. I shall now read ye the full proclamation which shall be posted throughout His Majesty’s colony.”

  He proceeded to read it aloud, noting as the words left his lips that most of his audience now appeared either bored, indifferent, or openly hostile. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Sometimes, it appeared to Spotswood as if he was the only man in Virginia concerned with maintaining the integrity of the Crown and protecting the colony from danger. With eight of twelve of his own Council members and the majority of the fifty-one burgesses firmly opposed to him, most of the men in the room were his avowed enemies. He faced a hostile room and a hostile government and he could see no end in sight. But as he looked out at the faces of his adversaries, he vowed that he would never capitulate to such traitors to British hegemony. Never!

  When he had read the proclamation in its entirety, Ludwell stood up and looked sharply at him. “Yes, we all know about this Blackbeard supposedly prowling around the Carolinas. But what happens in North or South Carolina is of no business to us here. I don’t see any present threat to Virginia from these pirates, and I don’t believe anyone else here does but you, Lieutenant Governor. The way most of us reckon it, we have more to fear from you threatening our colonial institutions than we do from this Blackbeard the pirate and the swarms of corsairs you contend are invading our coast. So why do we need a proclamation exactly?”

  “Hear, hear!” came shouts of agreement from the other members of his opposition, at least two dozen voices strong, all of them loud and threatening.

  “Are you contending these outlaws do not constitute a threat?” posed Spotswood rhetorically.

  “Absolutely. And I’m not the only one saying it.”

  “Hear, hear!” came the confirmation from the gallery.

  “Why these rogues are more than just an annoyance to this colony. They are prime recruits for any pirate captain willing to raise a fresh crew on the Atlantic seaboard, and a socially and politically divisive group that might entice law-abiding seamen to follow their example.”

  “But some of them are men who have dutifully received their pardons and want to quit a-pirating for good and go on to lead upstanding Christian lives,” pointed out Reverend James Blair, who had stood up and looked like an implacable tree trunk with his broad-shouldered chest beneath his holy black vestments. “You want to lump together men who have been pardoned with those who remain defiantly piratical, but they are not one and the same.”

  “It is true I don’t make such fine distinctions. That’s because I don’t trust the vipers. Their kind would sell their own mothers for a hundred pieces of eight.”

  The reverend shook his lion-like head. “The heart of men is not such a simple thing when atonement for one’s sins is under consideration. Perhaps you did not know that Woodes Rogers, who is about to become governor of the Bahamas, was once a pirate.”

  “He was not a pirate—he was a privateer!”

  “Come now, Alexander, everyone knows that one man’s pirate is but another man’s privateer. The point being is it depends wholly on who is putting forth the definition and where their vested interests lay. But most importantly, even outlaws can become respectable and law-abiding. That’s what the Heavenly Father tells us.”

  “Aye, I agree,” said Ludwell. “Why look at you, Lieutenant Governor. From a lowly soldier shot by a cannon ball to the tyrannical ruler of a colony for an absentee royal governor. Now that’s respectability all right!”

  This time the council members and burgesses roared with disdainful laughter. From his podium, Spotswood scowled. But he reminded himself that he must control his temper and not allow himself to lash back personally. Of course it was not easy. He truly hated these men: Ludwell, Blair, Carter, Grymes, Smith, Corbin—the list went on and on and on. Damn them—damn them to hell!

  He pounded his fist onto the lectern, unable to control his temper. “These pirates are skunks and villains of the first order, and the very idea of them renouncing their piracy and going on to live productive lives is a sham. Why, gentlemen, I do believe your hypocrisy knows no bounds when it comes to the subject of pirates.”

  “How dare you speak to us like that?” growled Reverend Blair.

  “And how dare you preach to me the virtues of a reformed pirate. There is no such thing, and that is why these men will be hounded until they leave my blasted colony!”

  “It is not your colony—and neither does it belong to the earl of Orkney or the King of England!” protested Ludwell, his face enflamed with genuine passion. “It belongs to us that lives here and works this land. It belongs to we Americans!”

  “And
just who are these Americans, a rabble with pitchforks in one hand and a twist of tobacco in the other? No, sir, there is no such thing as Americans, and to talk of such a thing is sedition.”

  “Our blood may be British, but we are first and foremost Americans!” shouted Ludwell, raising up his arms to his fellow insurgents in the audience to rise up along with him.

  “We are Americans! We are Americans!” roared the patriotic crowd.

  Crossing his arms, Spotswood stood there fuming. The gulf between himself and these people was wide and growing wider every day, he realized. Clearly, they no longer saw themselves as loyal supporters of the Realm and sovereigns of Britain. They saw themselves as something new and different, so different in fact that they weren’t even willing to condemn vile barbarians like Edward Thache, who would only be too happy to plunder their ships, rape their women, and seize their houses. He found even being associated with such men deeply disconcerting. These so-called Americans were nothing but an unruly and unsophisticated mob of profiteers, whiners, ruffians, cheats, and thieves. No wonder they seemed to favor villainous predators of the high seas over honest, law-abiding men like himself.

  Now Ludwell stepped into the aisle. “We don’t have a problem with freebooters in these parts, Lieutenant Governor. They bring in trade goods at fair prices, they bring coin and gold dust into our ordinaries, and, unlike you, they know how to spin a good yarn. And furthermore, as the good reverend has so adeptly pointed out, one man’s pirate is another man’s privateer. With war expected to come again any day now between Spain and England, that is no joking matter. We will need Edward Thache and any and every qualified sea captain just like him if it comes to war, I assure ye.”

  “We all know how the Crown operates,” said Blair. “The Crown, in quick succession, issues proclamations that first commission privateers, then outlaw them, then pardon them, then revoke the pardon and order their hanging, then gives privateering commissions anew to those left alive before beginning the whole process all over again.”

  “The piracy proclamation is in effect,” said Spotswood emphatically. “As of today, all former pirates who set foot on Virginia soil are to register with the authorities, regardless of whether they have been pardoned or not. The proclamation also forbids these men from associating with one another in groups of three or more. Failure of a man identified as a pirate to comply will result in his arrest as a vagrant seaman, confiscation of his money and property, and his possible impressment in the Royal Navy or incarceration. That is the letter of the law, gentlemen, and I will expect it to be strictly obeyed.”

  “You’re a bloody tyrant, Spotswood!” shouted Ludwell. “We’ll not quit until we see you removed from this continent altogether!”

  “Yes, you’re made it abundantly clear where you stand, gentlemen,” he said, leering at his crowd of detractors. “But let me make it perfectly clear where I stand. With men like you in power, I take the authority, interest, and reputation of His Majesty’s governor in this domain to be now reduced to a desperate gasp. In fact, if King George cannot reverse this terrible trend, then the inveteracy of you Ludwell, hypocrisy of you Blair, haughtiness of you Carter, brutishness of you Smith, conceitedness of you Grymes, and scurrility of you Corbin, with about a score of your base disloyalists and ungrateful Creolians for your adherents, must for the future rule this province. As for me, I would rather live in a state of anarchy than hand over the reins of this colony to the likes of you traitors to the Crown. And with that, gentlemen, I bid you good day.”

  He stormed out of the room before they could get a word in edgewise, having made up his mind about one more thing. When it came to Blackbeard and piracy in general, he would never again let the Council or burgesses in on his plans. From now on, he would trust no one and work behind a veil of secrecy.

  And he would not quit until he had won.

  CHAPTER 44

  DELAWARE CAPES

  JULY 14, 1718

  STARING OUT OVER THE REVENGE’S LARBOARD RAILING, Stede Bonnet felt an overwhelming sense of despair. He had been a pirate for a year and a half and had even less to show for it than when he had first set sail from Barbados. His once-brand-new sloop was leaky and in bad need of careening. His crew of forty men was an unruly mob more loyal to their new charismatic quartermaster, the recently elected Robert Tucker, than to him. And by taking more than a half dozen prizes in the past two weeks since sailing north from Old Topsail Inlet, he had already violated the pardon from Governor Eden, who had granted him a clean legal record. Now regrettably, he was once again a wanted man.

  The governor had been more than happy to issue him and his men endorsements of King George I’s most gracious pardon in exchange for a generous gift of several barrels of sugar and molasses, a bag filled with silver pieces of eight, and a trifle of gold dust, and he had also issued Bonnet a commission to sail with the Revenge to St. Thomas to seek a letter of marque from the island’s governor. But now none of that would be possible because Bonnet and his new crew—who were, in effect, led by the outspoken Tucker—had already taken several prizes and were once again being sought by the authorities as pirates. Now his pardon offered him no protection whatsoever.

  But his situation was even worse than that. As a pirate captain, he was an abysmal failure and still commanded little respect from his men. His poor decisions had not only cost the lives of countless of his crew members in battle, but now he had lost all the company’s treasure to a well-planned deception by Blackbeard that he should have seen coming. All in all, he had a ruinous reputation in both respectable and outlaw circles, and he could not bear the humiliation of returning to either his old life among the plantations of Barbados or living among his pirate peers in the Bahamas. But he was just as miserable aboard the Revenge. The well-liked Tucker had taken effective command of his ship just like Blackbeard previously, undermining his authority and making him captain in name only.

  After Blackbeard had double-crossed him at Topsail Inlet, vanishing with the Spanish prize sloop and most of the company’s treasure, Bonnet had spent much of June refitting the Revenge, gathering up his crew, distributing their pardons, and then trying to hunt Blackbeard down. When he had first returned to the inlet, he had found the Queen Anne’s Revenge and the Adventure still lying battered and broken in the surf, but the Spanish sloop was gone, the Revenge’s cargo and provisions had been removed to the vessel, a number of crewmen had been marooned on an island, and Blackbeard had long since sailed away. Bonnet’s pulse had raced as he was gripped with the realization that the grounding of the massive flagship and Herriot’s Adventure had been a ruse. It had all been part of an elaborate plan by Blackbeard to break up his huge company of pirates and keep all the hard-earned plunder for himself and a select coterie of his most trusted men.

  When he heard a rumor that Blackbeard was at Ocracoke Inlet, fifty miles up the North Carolina coast, he sailed there in the Revenge, only to find a pair of deserted barrier islands. Incensed over being double-crossed, he had hoped he could surprise and overpower his betrayer and possibly recover some of the plunder, but by then the wily Blackbeard had already left Ocracoke for Bath Town.

  Low on supplies, Bonnet pointed the Revenge north to the scene of his early successes: the cruising ground near the busy shipping lanes off the Virginia capes. Before leaving Old Topsail Inlet, the pirates had elected Tucker as their quartermaster. He was a mariner from Jamaica whom Blackbeard had seized from a merchant sloop some weeks earlier. Like many captives, he found that he liked the free-spirited, higher-paying life of a freebooter over the abuse and substandard pay of the merchant service, and he had quickly become a popular member of the crew. But he had little respect for Bonnet. When the crew discovered that the Revenge had but ten or eleven barrels of food aboard—Blackbeard having stolen the rest—Tucker resolved that they should simply seize more from the next merchant vessel they encountered. Not wanting his pardon to be invalidated, Bonnet was opposed to this plan and threatened to resign and
leave the Revenge, but the majority of the crew didn’t care whether he stayed with the company or not and they threw their votes firmly behind Tucker.

  To conceal his identity and distance himself from his previous depredations, Bonnet instituted a number of changes to make it appear as if he was not the captain of a pirate vessel but rather a merchantman. First, he insisted that he be called Captain Edwards or Captain Thomas, a ruse that rarely fooled their captives. Second, he changed the name of the Revenge to the Royal James in homage to James Stuart, whom he and most of his crew considered the rightful heir to the British throne. But this, too, fooled no one. Finally, he insisted that the pirates give their captives “payment” for the goods they stole, so that they might later claim that they were traders, not pirates. South of Cape Henry in early July, they stopped a small coastal vessel, taking a dozen barrels of pork and four hundred pounds of bread and exchanging eight or ten casks of rice and an old anchor cable. At this point, he still clung to the notion that he could go legitimate and obtain a privateering commission from the Danes on St. John. But after a week or two, most of the pirates refused to participate in his ineffective subterfuge. Soon thereafter, the pirates were off the Capes of Virginia capturing and ransacking every vessel they could lay their hands on.