1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,040 Speaker 1: Hey, history fans, if you want a double dose of history, 2 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,280 Speaker 1: here's a rerun for today, brought to you by Tracy V. Wilson. 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:10,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to this Day in History Class from how Stuff 4 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:12,479 Speaker 1: Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff you 5 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore 6 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick 7 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and it's November 9 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,600 Speaker 1: twenty two. Black Beard died on this day in seventeen eighteen. 10 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:35,479 Speaker 1: That was, of course, the nickname of an infamous pirate 11 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:40,160 Speaker 1: named Edward Teach or perhaps Thatch. That nickname came from 12 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: his big black beard, which he was reported to accentuate 13 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:48,159 Speaker 1: with lit matches or candles. He was probably born in Bristol, England, 14 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: but like a lot of pirates, his origins and his 15 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,360 Speaker 1: early life are unclear. He probably got his start at 16 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: sea as a privateer during Queen Anne's War, which was 17 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 1: part of the War of Spanish Succession, shifting to outright 18 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: piracy once that war was over and there was no 19 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:07,920 Speaker 1: military reason for him to be plundering French and Spanish 20 00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: ships anymore. He established a base on the outer banks 21 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,080 Speaker 1: of North Carolina, and his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, 22 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 1: had previously been a French slave ship called lack on Cord. 23 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 1: When he took this ship, he left most of the 24 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,679 Speaker 1: enslaved people aboard with the captain in a smaller sloop, 25 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: he kept sixty one aboard what became the Queen An's Revenge. 26 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: It seems as though he absorbed these people into his 27 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:35,920 Speaker 1: crew rather than considering them to be enslaved. That was 28 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 1: often how pirates handled the enslaved people that they captured. 29 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: They treated them more as crew members than as enslaved workers. 30 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: His fleet had up to four ships at any given time. 31 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:51,880 Speaker 1: They were crewed by as many as two hundred men, 32 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: and they plundered off the coast of North America and 33 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, becoming really notorious. The peak of his 34 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: radical activity was from seventeen sixteen to seventeen eighteen, after 35 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 1: being mentored by Captain Benjamin Hornigald, when he was serving 36 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 1: as a member of Hornigal's crew. While the nations whose 37 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,919 Speaker 1: ships he was targeting feared and deplored him for the 38 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: most part, the population of the Carolina's tolerated or even 39 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: encouraged black Bear's piracy off their coast. Local officials were 40 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: willing to take bribes to look the other way, and 41 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:28,240 Speaker 1: his plundering of these other ships meant that the locals 42 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:30,959 Speaker 1: were getting duty free goods that would be a lot 43 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,560 Speaker 1: more expensive otherwise, so he became something of a folk 44 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 1: hero locally. That started to change, though, after he blockaded 45 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: the port of Charleston in May of seventeen eighteen and 46 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: took hostages that he didn't release until the city paid 47 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: a huge ransom on them. The Queen Anne's Revenge and 48 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: another of black Beard's ships, the Adventure, both ran aground 49 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: not long after that, and they were lost. He had 50 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:57,960 Speaker 1: to break up a lot of his pirate company at 51 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: that point, and then to try to continue doing what 52 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: he was doing in a much smaller sloop. Then he 53 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: was killed in a battle in Okracoke Inlet just about 54 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:11,840 Speaker 1: six months later, on November seventeen eighteen, what started out 55 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 1: as a naval battle between two ships ended with heavy 56 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,480 Speaker 1: fighting aboard the sloop of the Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard. 57 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: The pirates were lured onto this sloop after what they 58 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: had thought was a battle that they had won, but 59 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,240 Speaker 1: it turned out that Maynard and several uninjured men were 60 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: hidden below decks. That final fight was very bloody, with 61 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: black Beard being shot and struck with swords repeatedly before dying. 62 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: Maynard returned to Virginia afterward with the black Beard's head 63 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: hanging from the bow. His body had been thrown overboard. 64 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: The wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge was found in 65 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: nine six, and extensive underwater archaeological work has been done 66 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: since then. Huge numbers of artifacts have been brought to 67 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: the surface for conservation and in some cases display. The 68 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: q a R Conservation Laboratory was dedicated for this purpose 69 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 1: in two thousand four. Thanks to Casey Pigraham and Chandler 70 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: Maze for their audio work on this show. You can 71 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: subscribe to the Stay in History Class on Apple Podcasts, 72 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: Google Podcasts, and wherever else you get your podcasts, and 73 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 1: you can tune in tomorrow for an insurrection that lasted 74 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:21,159 Speaker 1: for months.