Blackbeard- The Birth of America

by Samuel Marquis

  In the eyes of history, it is Spotswood that is far more criminal, immoral, and unethical than Blackbeard, Eden, or Knight. Not only did he knowingly and illicitly violate the sovereignty of a neighboring colony, he conspired with and was closely associated with the ethically suspect Edward Moseley, Colonel Maurice Moore, and Captain Vail. In December 1718, the Moseley gang broke into the house of Secretary John Lovick in an attempt to examine Council records for incriminating evidence against Eden and Knight. When Spotswood’s North Carolina conspirators Moseley and Moore were tried the following year, the event was a sensation and Moseley was fined and barred from public office for three years. Spotswood did his best to distance himself from Moseley and Moore, but his critics knew better. In the end, he is remembered as a slave-owning British elitist, stodgy bureaucrat, hypocrite, and profiteer who used the governor’s office to lord over “the people” in the name of the Crown, promote his own self-interests at the public expense, and destroy his political enemies or those, like Blackbeard, that he disapproved of.

  He will always be Inspector Javert to Blackbeard’s Jean Valjean from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.

  CAESAR

  The background and exploits of the black African slave named Caesar remain shrouded in mystery to this day. Newly discovered research by Blackbeard scholar Kevin Duffus has unraveled part of the mystery of Caesar, who is believed to have served as a free seaman under Edward Thache throughout much of his piratical career. Contrary to popular mythology, the Caesar who sailed with Blackbeard was not the legendary “Black Caesar” whose Wikipedia page claims, amusingly, that he was “a prominent African tribal war chieftain” widely known for his “huge size, immense strength, and keen intelligence” who “evaded capture from many different slave traders” to become a pirate who sailed under Blackbeard. That Black Caesar apparently also had an island named “Caesar’s Rock” in his honor near Key Largo that is the “present-day site of his original headquarters” and upon which he had a harem of “at least 100 women seized from passing ships, as well as a prison camp which he kept prisoners in stone huts hoping to ransom them.” Whoever the Black Caesar of popular legend and Wikipedia fame was, he did not sail with Blackbeard and probably never existed at all.

  According to Duffus, the real-life Caesar was likely brought to Bath as a slave from Charles Town by Colonel Robert Daniel in 1705. At this time, Caesar would have been ten years old. For the next ten years, he served as a slave at the Daniels plantation along with more than twenty other slaves, including a male three years older than him named Pompey, who was likely his friend. Caesar and Pompey were subsequently acquired together by Tobias Knight when Knight purchased the Daniel plantation in 1716, though Duffus concedes that they may have been purchased earlier, between 1710 and 1715, when many records were lost or improperly preserved due to the war with the Tuscarora Indians. Once acquired by Knight, Caesar is believed to have taken part in an expedition sponsored by Governor Eden and the proprietary colony of North Carolina to the Florida wrecks, with the end result that his piratical career began in much the same way as that of Thache, Hornigold, Jennings, Vane, and countless others during the Golden Age of Piracy. As Duffus states, “In 1716, with Tobias Knight’s help and connections, Eden likely approved sending forth the Bath County treasure salvors, who included…William Howard, John Martin, et al, bound for the Spanish treasure fleet wrecks off the Florida coast. Caesar was Tobias Knight’s investment in the salvage company; he may well have been one of the divers.”

  Thus, Caesar is believed to have sailed with Thache and the Bath County men—who would later become the Bath County pirates like William Howard and John Martin—“from the very beginning of their piratical adventures.” Historically, Caesar’s claim to fame stems from two things. First, he was a black pirate who served under Thache as a free man for several years and was described by Alexander Spotswood as a “person of a very notorious character for his piracies.” Second, Caesar somehow inspired sufficient confidence that Blackbeard entrusted him and him alone with the critical task of igniting the Adventure’s stores of black powder to destroy the ship and all the men aboard if the pirates were subdued during the battle at Ocracoke. He did this to prevent the crew’s capture and the indignity of being hanged. As we know, Caesar failed to accomplish his mission because he was restrained by two men hiding out in the hold of the sloop, who are believed to have been trader Samuel Odell and pirate James Robins.

  The true identity of Caesar and the relationship between Caesar and Thache has always intrigued historians. Why would the black African be willing to commit suicide at his captain’s request? The answer is he most certainly wouldn’t have made the ultimately unsuccessful attempt if he was merely Blackbeard’s slave and not a full crew member. As historian David Moore of the Queen Anne’s Revenge project and pirate author Lindley S. Butler have concluded, Blackbeard would never have entrusted such an important assignment to someone who was not a full voting crew member drawing his equal share of the plunder. Nor would Blackbeard have entrusted such a difficult assignment to someone he didn’t have absolute faith would competently carry out the mission. As Caesar made a concerted attempt to follow through with Blackbeard’s command, this indicates that Caesar and Blackbeard were close and trusted one another. Within the narrative of the Battle of Ocracoke in A General History, Captain Charles Johnson (Mist) refers to “a negro whom (Blackbeard) had bred up” as the crew member assigned to destroying the Adventure and its men, intimating a long-term, personal relationship between the two men. According to Duffus, this anecdote was corroborated in the letters of Alexander Spotswood, though neither Johnson nor Spotswood identified the “negro” by name, further supporting a close professional association if not active friendship. Peter Leeson states that Caesar was “close to Blackbeard personally” and that he had risen to a position “of importance, and even authority” within the crew, which was why he “was given the important task of blowing up the pirates’ ship should authorities overtake his crew.” Pirate scholar Mark Hanna points out in his book Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740 that after 1716 “a remarkable number of black crew members appeared on pirate vessels, including one of Blackbeard’s officers.” The black “officer” Hanna is referring to is, of course, Thache’s compadre Caesar.

  Unlike black pirates Richard Stiles, Thomas Gates, James Blake, and James White, Caesar never gave any testimony against his beloved captain, Eden, or Knight in return for leniency, which he no doubt would have done if he was a slave relegated to performing the menial work aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge and Adventure. As Robert E. Lee says, “Caesar, who had long been a member of Blackbeard’s crew and was a favorite of all the pirates, could not be persuaded to turn against his Brethren of the Coast.” Of the seven prisoners that received pardons, Caesar was the only whose money was returned to him and who could pay the attorney-general the common fee due for making out the pardons, which Spotswood claimed was because “there was no proof of its being piratically taken.” Caesar was ultimately pardoned because, although he had tried to blow up the ships, he had been stopped before he could accomplish his mission and he, therefore, had not taken up arms against the King’s men.

  Following his pardon and release from Williamsburg prison in early March, or earlier, Caesar returned to Tobias Knight’s plantation on Town Creek in Bath. He was twenty-four years old. Knight’s inventory on September 15, 1719, shortly after his death lists Caesar’s age and his value as sixty pounds sterling. There’s no record of him after that known to this author and history does not tell us what he did after sailing as a free man for two and a half years under Thache. With his mentor Blackbeard dead, his life as a pirate was over and returning as a slave to his familiar home on Tobias Knight’s plantation and to his likely friend Pompey were obviously more appealing than striking out somewhere else in colonial America on his own. Especially after he had witnessed the killing of ten of his pirate brethren and spent several brutal months as th
e British Crown’s prisoner.

  SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  “Pirates believed in equality in more ways than just votes, shares, and disability compensation. In fact, one can argue that pirate democracy was a grand form of rebellion, one that stood defiantly against the reigning social order—against the rule of kings and nobility. Indeed, pirates were in many ways far more democratic and egalitarian than their contemporaries.”

  —Benerson Little, 2016, The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths

  To develop the story line, characters, and scenes for Blackbeard: The Birth of America, I consulted over a hundred archival materials, non-fiction books, magazine and newspaper articles, blogs, Web sites, and numerous individuals, and I visited most every real-world location in person. These principal locations included London, Bath, Ocracoke, Beaufort, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and other locations in the Caribbean. All in all, there are too many resources and locations to name here. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t give credit to the key historical references upon which this novel is based, as well as the critical individuals who dramatically improved the quality of the manuscript from its initial to its final stage. Any technical mistakes in the historical facts underpinning the novel, typographical errors, or examples of overreach due to artistic license, however, are the fault of me and me alone.

  In addition to primary reference materials from British, French, West Indies, and American archives, many of which are included in Joel H. Baer’s 2007 four-volume compendium of primary documents entitled British Piracy in the Golden Age: History and Interpretation 1660-1730, and the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial North America and West Indies series, I relied heavily upon sixteen secondary sources dealing specifically with Blackbeard and the Golden Age of Piracy. These references were invaluable and included the following: Blackbeard off Philadelphia: Documents Pertaining to the Campaign against the Pirates in 1717 and 1718 (2010) and Blackbeard: The Creation of a Legend (2012) by Arne Bialuschewski; Blackbeard the Pirate: Historical Background and the Beaufort Inlet Shipwrecks (1997) and A General History of Blackbeard the Pirate, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, and the Adventure (1997) by David D. Moore; The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate (2014) and Rush to Judgement—An Analysis of a New Interpretation of the Pirate Blackbeard’s Origins (2016) by Kevin Duffus; The Republic of Pirates: Being the True Account and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down (2007) and The Last Days of Blackbeard: An Exclusive Account of the Final Raid and Political Maneuvers of History’s Most Notorious Pirate (2014) by Colin Woodard; Blackbeard Reconsidered: Mist’s Piracy, Thache’s Genealogy (2015) and Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World (2016) by Baylus C. Brooks; Blackbeard: America’s Most Notorious Pirate (2006) and Blackbeard’s Last Fight: Pirate Hunting in North Carolina 1718 (2013) by Angus Konstam; The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths (2016) by Benerson Little; Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740 (2015) and A Lot of What Is Known about Pirates Is Not True, and a Lot of What Is True Is Not Known (2017) by Mark G. Hanna; and The Firsts of Blackbeard: Exploring Edward Thatch’s Early Days as a Pirate (2015, blog) by David Fictum.

  My conceptual model of Edward Thache the innocent little boy, British Royal Navy officer, peacetime merchantman-privateer, lover, and eventual pirate is based upon a synthesis of primary documents and the most plausible interpretations by the modern-era Blackbeard experts listed above and others, who include maritime historians, documentarians, journalists, authors, lawyers, former Navy Seals, and researchers—all equally important perches from which to critically examine the life of Blackbeard. I have gone to great lengths to avoid using Captain Charles Johnson’s (Nathanial Mist’s) A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates, completed six years after Blackbeard’s death, except as a backup to a primary source or if the idea advanced is plausible and has been accepted by one or more credible modern-day scholars. With regard to the character and motivations of Blackbeard, I knew I would be treading in dangerous waters as to his family origins and career as a pirate, so I relied most heavily on those texts by respected researchers that seemed to provide a balanced and well-rounded perspective, or that at least presented convincing arguments with ample supporting documentation. Readers knowledgeable about Blackbeard will no doubt recognize that the sixteen references listed above paint a detailed and sometimes contradictory picture of a most complex human being, one who at times merits our awe or admiration and at other times our firm disapproval and criticism. I earnestly hope that Blackbeard: The Birth of America provides a full and complex portrait of the man; after all, Edward Thache was a complicated and conflicted human being in one of the most intriguing and romantic eras in history: the Golden Age of Piracy and the stirrings of America as an independent nation founded on enduring democratic principles.

  In writing the novel, there were many excellent historical books and articles in addition to those listed above from which I drew facts and inspiration to flesh out the Golden Age of Piracy and the other key point of view characters: Alexander Spotswood, Caesar, Stede Bonnet, and Lieutenant Robert Maynard. The interested reader is referred to the following additional sources. The list is especially useful for those who would like to know more about the Golden Age of Piracy and the historical figures in the book.

  Golden Age of Piracy: Proprietaries, Privateers, and Pirates: America’s Forgotten Golden Age (2016) by Baylus C. Brooks; Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates (1995), Pirates: Terror on the High Seas from the Caribbean to the South China Sea (1996, Ed.), and Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers (2012) by David Cordingly; Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700–1750 (1989), Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age (2004), and Outlaws of the Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail (2015) by Marcus Rediker; Daniel Defoe, Nathaniel Mist, and the General History of the Pyrates (2004), Between Newfoundland and the Malacca Strait: A Survey of the Golden Age of Piracy,1695–1725 (2004), Black People under the Black Flag: Piracy and the Slave Trade on the West Coast of Africa, 1718–1723 (2008), and Pirates, Markets and Imperial Authority: Economic Aspects of Maritime Depredations in the Atlantic World, 1716–1726 (2008) by Arne Bialuschewski; Hostis Humani Generi: Piracy, Terrorism and a New International Law (2006), The Pirates’ Pact: The Secret Alliances Between History’s Most Notorious Buccaneers and Colonial America (2008), and The Politics of Piracy: Crime and Civil Disobedience in Colonial America (2014) by Douglas R. Burgess, Jr.; The Sea Rover’s Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730 (2005) and How History’s Greatest Pirates Pillaged, Plundered, and Got Away With It: The Stories, Techniques, and Tactics of the Most Feared Sea Rovers from 1500-1800 (2011) by Benerson Little; A History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas (2004) by Nigel Cawthorne; A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates (May and December 1724 Editions) by Captain Charles Johnson (Nathaniel Mist); Pirates of the British Isles (2005) by Joel Baer; Pirates: Terror on the High Seas (2001), The Pirate Ships, 1660-1730 (2003), Pirates: The Complete History from 1300 BC to the Present Day (2008), and The World Atlas of Pirates (2009) by Angus Konstam; The Pirate Wars (2006) by Peter Earle; Flying the Black Flag: Revolt, Revolution and the Social Organization of Piracy in the ‘Golden Age’ (2007) by Chris Land; Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves: Colonial America and the Indo-Atlantic World (2015) by Kevin P. McDonald; The Invisible Hook: The Law and Economics of Pirate Tolerance (2009) and The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates (2009) by Peter T. Leeson; The Buccaneers of America (1678, English translation 1969) by Alexander Exquemelin; Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail (1997) by Jeffrey W. Bolster; Black Men under the Black Flag (2001) by Kenneth J. Kinkor, in Bandits at Sea: A Pirates
Reader, C.R. Pennell (Ed.); Pirates: Scourge of the Seas (2006) by John Reeve Carpenter; The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (2000) by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker; The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues (2007) by George Choundas; and The Real Pirates of the Caribbean (2014) by Colin Woodard.

  Edward Thache and Stede Bonnet: Blackbeard the Pirate: A Reappraisal of his Life and Times (1974) by Robert E. Lee; Blackbeard and the Meaning of Pirate Captaincy (2002) by Michael T. Smith; Blackbeard: The Real Pirate of the Caribbean (2006) by Dan Parry; Blackbeard’s Capture of the Nantaise Slave Ship La Concorde: A Brief Analysis of the Documentary Evidence (2001) by David D. Moore and Mike Daniel; In Search of Blackbeard: Historical and Archaeological Research at Shipwreck Site 003BUI (2001) by Richard Lawrence and Mark Wilde-Ramsin; Boston News-letter, 1704-1726, Boston, Massachusetts; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and the West Indies, Preserved in the Public Record Office. Edited by Cecil Headlam. London: Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1930-1933; Pirates, Privateers and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast (2000) and Blackbeard’s Terror (2011) by Lindley F. Butler; Legends of Black Beard and His Ties to Bath Town: A Study of Historical Events Using Genealogical Methodology (2002) by Jane Stubbs Bailey, Allen Hart Norris, and John Oden III; Blackbeard and Other Pirates of the Atlantic Coast (1993) by Nancy Roberts; The Pirates of Colonial North Carolina (1963) by Hugh F. Rankin; The Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet and Other Pirates (1719) by the South Carolina Court of Vice-Admiralty; Blackbeard and the Queen Anne’s Revenge (2009) by Wendy Welsh; Pirates: A History (2008) by Tim Travers; The Gentleman Pirate: How Stede Bonnet went from Wealthy Landowner to Villain on the Sea (2007) by Amy Crawford; Stede Bonnet: Charleston’s Gentleman Pirate (2012) by Christopher Byrd Downey; The Notorious Blackbeard Was Most Probably Also A Health-Conscious Pirate (2016) by Dattatreya Mandal; A Fury from Hell—or Was He? (2000) by Constance Bond; Shiver Me Timbers—Blackbeard not an Englishman? (2009) by Jerry Allegood; Pirates of the Carolinas (2005) by Terrance Zepke; Blackbeard, the Corsair of the Carolinas (1889) by Stephen B. Weeks; and Historian: Blackbeard’s “Friend” Was Likely His Slave (2015) by Jeff Hampton.