Table of Contents
BLACKBEARD
Praise for Samuel Marquis
Dedication
Blackbeard: The Birth of America
PART 1 - THE SPANISH WRECKS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
PART 2 - THE FLYING GAN
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
PART 3 - BLACKBEARD AND THE GENTLEMAN PIRATE
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
PART 4 - QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
PART 5 - RETIREMENT OF A KIND
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
PART 6 - A CONSPIRACY
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 65
CHAPTER 66
CHAPTER 67
CHAPTER 68
CHAPTER 69
CHAPTER 70
CHAPTER 71
CHAPTER 72
AFTERWORD
SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND FORTHCOMING TITLES
BLACKBEARD
THE BIRTH OF AMERICA
TO THE READER
This is the story of Edward Thache—former British Navy officer and notorious Jamaican privateer-turned-pirate, who lorded over the Atlantic seaboard and Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy and has captivated the minds of children and adults alike for three centuries now. This story of Blackbeard is told through the eyes of not only the Robin-Hood-like American patriot and master of the sweet trade himself, but his primary nemesis Alexander Spotswood, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and British Crown’s man in Williamsburg who illegally hunted him down; the African slave Caesar who sailed with Thache as a free man during his short three-year stint as a sea rover; and Stede Bonnet, the wealthy “Gentleman Pirate” from Barbados who also sailed with the capable Blackbeard. The history you will find in these pages is most likely not one you have heard before as it relies little upon Captain Charles Johnson’s (Nathanial Mist’s) oft-cited but largely discredited, propagandist tome A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates, completed six years after Blackbeard’s death. Instead, the story of Edward Thache presented herein is based principally upon reliable historical records and the research findings from the last two decades from eminently qualified Blackbeard and pirate experts David Moore of the Queen Anne’s Revenge project, Arne Bialuschewski, Kevin Duffus, Angus Konstam, Colin Woodard, Baylus Brooks, David Cordingly, Marcus Rediker, Mark Hanna, Benerson Little, David Fictum, and others. It has been reconstructed not only from deed, marriage, and death records, court transcripts, and first- and second-hand accounts in British, French, Jamaican, and North and South American archives, but from a synthesis of the most plausible arguments put forward regarding the character and motivations of the man by this new generation of historical experts.
My interest in the Golden Age of Piracy stems from my direct descendance from Captain William Kidd. In 1701, the British privateer was convicted of murder and five counts of piracy, hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping, London, and gibbeted over the River Thames—as a warning to future would-be pirates—for three gruesome years. A crowd of thousands gawked and jeered as the privateer captain, who was wrongfully thrown to the wolves by his political Whig backers, kicked and breathed his last in a macabre “dance of death.” Though the iconic Kidd is my ninth great-grandfather on the Marquis side of the family, I must confess that he is only the third most famous sea robber of all time to Blackbeard and Sir Henry Morgan. In fact, it is Blackbeard’s name that has resonated more than any other “Pyrate” for three centuries now—and yet he is perhaps the most misunderstood and historically misrepresented of all the sea captains who went on the account in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Fortunately, since the three-hundredth anniversary of my ancestor Captain Kidd swinging from the gallows at Wapping, the pendulum has swung in the other direction for Edward Thache of Spanish Town, Jamaica. As Colin Woodard, author of The Republic of Pirates, states, “In recent years, researchers have dug up new evidence, buried in the archives of England, France and the Americas, or beneath the sands of the American coast, allowing them to piece together a fuller and extremely compelling picture of Blackbeard and his cohorts, one that shows him to have been a canny strategist, a master of improvisation, a showman, a natural leader and an extraordinary risk taker.” This book is the story of that Blackbeard, a story that has been lost to us in a “fog of legend, myth and propaganda” for three hundred years. It is also the story of the birth of America and one of the first American revolutionaries in the War of Independence against the British Crown.
Praise for Samuel Marquis
#1 Denver Post Bestselling Author
Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year Winner
Beverly Hills Books Awards Winner & Award-Winning Finalist
Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner
& Award-Winning Finalist
American Book Fest-USA Best Book Award-Winning Finalist
Colorado Book Awards Award-Winning Finalist
“The Coalition has a lot of good action and suspense, an unusual female assassin, and the potential to be another The Day After Tomorrow [the runaway bestseller by Allan Folsom].”
—James Patterson, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
“Altar of Resistance is a gripping and densely packed thriller dramatizing the Allied Italian campaign...reminiscent of Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Marquis is a student of history, always creative, [and] never boring....A good comparison might be Tom Clancy.”
—Military.com
“In his novels Blind Thrust and Cluster of Lies, Samuel Marquis vividly combines the excitement of the best modern techno-thrillers, an education in geology, and a clarifying reminder that the choices each of us make have a profound impact on our precious planet.”
—Ambassador Marc Grossman, Former U.S. Under Secretary of State
“Marquis grabs my attention right from the beginning and never lets go.”
—Governor Roy R. Romer, 39th Governor of Colorado
“The Coalition starts with a bang, revs up its engines, and never stops until the explosive ending….Perfect
for fans of James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Vince Flynn.”
—Foreword Reviews
“Old-time spy buffs will appreciate the tradecraft and attention to detail, while adventure enthusiasts will enjoy the unique perspective and setting for a WWII story….[A] combination of The Great Escape, Public Enemies, a genuine old-time Western, and a John Le Carré novel.”
—BlueInk Review (for Bodyguard of Deception, Book 1 of WWII Series)
“The Coalition by Samuel Marquis is a riveting novel by an uncommonly gifted writer. This is the stuff from which blockbuster movies are made! Very highly recommended.”
—Midwest Book Review - The Mystery/Suspense Shelf
“Readers looking for an unapologetic historical action book should tear through this volume.”
—Kirkus Reviews (for Bodyguard of Deception)
“Cluster of Lies has a twisty plot that grabs hold from the beginning and never let’s go. A true page turner! I’m already looking forward to the next Joe Higheagle adventure.”
—Robert Bailey, Author of The Professor and Between Black and White
“If you haven’t tried a Samuel Marquis novel yet, The Fourth Pularchek is a good one to get introduced. The action is non-stop and gripping with no shortage of surprises. If you’re already a fan of the award-winning novelist, this one won’t disappoint.”
—Dr. Wesley Britton, Bookpleasures.com (Crime & Mystery) - 5-Star Review
“Marquis is the new Follett, Silva, and Clancy rolled into one.”
—Prof. J.R. Welch, Editor of Dispatches from Fort Apache
“With Blind Thrust, Cluster of Lies, and his other works, Samuel Marquis has written true breakout novels that compare favorably with—and even exceed—recent thrillers on the New York Times Bestseller List.”
—Pat LoBrutto, Former Editor for Stephen King and Eric Van Lustbader (Bourne Series)
“Samuel Marquis picks up his World War II trilogy with Altar of Resistance, a well-researched and explosive ride through war-torn Rome with Nazis, booming battles, and intense cat-and-mouse chases….Grounded in historical fact but spiced up with thrilling imagination with the fate of the world in balance.”
—Foreword Reviews
“Reminiscent of The Day of the Jackal…with a high level of authentic detail. Skyler is a convincing sniper, and also a nicely conflicted one.”
—Donald Maass, Author of Writing 21st Century Fiction (for The Coalition)
“In Cluster of Lies, Samuel Marquis touches all the bases. He starts with a murder and the action doesn’t let up until the very last page in this compelling environmental thriller that is often uncomfortably realistic.”
—Charles Salzberg, Author of The Henry Swann Detective Series
By Samuel Marquis
BLACKBEARD: THE BIRTH OF AMERICA
WORLD WAR TWO SERIES
BODYGUARD OF DECEPTION
ALTAR OF RESISTANCE
SPIES OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN (JUNE 2018)
NICK LASSITER-SKYLER INTERNATIONAL
ESPIONAGE SERIES
THE DEVIL’S BRIGADE
THE COALITION
THE FOURTH PULARCHEK
BLIND THRUST
CLUSTER OF LIES
BLACKBEARD
THE BIRTH OF AMERICA
SAMUEL MARQUIS
MOUNT SOPRIS PUBLISHING
BLACKBEARD
THE BIRTH OF AMERICA
Copyright © 2018 by Samuel Marquis
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, government entities, intelligence agencies, religious and political organizations, corporations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, businesses, companies, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
MOUNT SOPRIS PUBLISHING
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Kindle: ISBN 978-1-943593-22-4
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Dedication
For the real Blackbeard—who has been maligned, co-opted, exploited, and misrepresented as a ruthless villain and sociopathic cutthroat in the name of propaganda and profit for three centuries now. May ye rest in peace.
Blackbeard: The Birth of America
So our Heroe, Captain Teach, assumed the Cognomen of Black-beard, from that large Quantity of Hair, which, like a frightful Meteor, covered his whole Face, and frightened America more than any Comet that has appeared there a long Time…In time of Action, he wore a Sling over his Shoulders, with three brace of Pistols, hanging from Holsters like Bandoliers; he wore a Fur-Cap, and stuck a lighted Match on each Side, under it, which appearing on each side of his Face, his Eyes naturally looking Fierce and Wild, made him altogether such a Figure, that Imagination cannot form an idea of a Fury, from hell, to look more frightful.
—Captain Charles Johnson (Nathanial Mist), 1724, from the sensationalist A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates
As surely as Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock, and the terrorist Samuel Adams, the pirate “criminal” Edward Thache might have been one of our earliest founding fathers, long before Washington, Madison, Jefferson, or Franklin. Thache, however, lost his revolution and certain British factions murdered him as certainly as King George III would have hung or shot Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and Franklin if these Founding Fathers had lost their revolution.
—Baylus Brooks, 2016, Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and his World
The reputation, at least in literature, of Blackbeard as a roving, ruthless barbarian hardly withstands historical scrutiny. There is strong evidence that his fearsome image is a fabrication that emerged in the course of his short, lawless career. The real Edward Thache was…a skilled sailor who tried to make the best of difficult circumstances in the early eighteenth-century seafaring world.
—Arne Bialuschewski, 2010, Blackbeard: The Making of a Legend
I have come to know Black Beard the man as he truly was. He was a son and a brother…He was not the bloodthirsty murderer, despicable slitter of throats or strangler of women as he has been so often described. [He] was no more immoral or corrupt than many who lived during his time, from the lowliest thieves to governors, ministers and lords. He was a paradox in a paradoxical age.
—Kevin Duffus, 2014, The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate
[P]iratical institutions reflected the brilliance of Madison’s arguments for democratically divided power more than half a century before Madison wrote them down. In this sense pirates were harbingers of our most sacred ideas about social organization. America’s Founding Fathers, to borrow the slogan of a po
pular pirate-inspired rum, “had a little Captain in them.” In these ways pirates were truly pioneers.
—Peter T. Leeson, 2009, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of PiratesCast of Historical Figures
CAPTAIN EDWARD THACHE AND HIS CREW
Edward Thache, Jr.: Former British Royal Navy seaman in Queen Anne’s War (1705-1713) and merchant-privateer who sailed as mate out of Philadelphia and Jamaica (1713-1715); independent pirate raiding British, French, and Spanish ships from 1716-1718; known as “Blackbeard” by 1717; born approximately 1687.
Caesar: African-American slave owned by Tobias Knight of Bath Town, North Carolina, and pirate with equal rights and shares aboard Thache’s various piratical vessels between 1716-1718; twenty-three years old in 1718; one of Thache’s many Bath County pirates, released prior to trial in 1719 and returned to Bath Town.
William Howard: Quartermaster with Thache from September 1717 to June 1718; son of Hyde Precinct, North Carolina, landowner Philip Howard; quartermaster under pirate Captain Benjamin Hornigold prior to Sept. 1717; one of Thache’s many Bath County pirates.
Israel Hands: Navigator and second-in-command to Thache; captain of the Adventure.
John Martin: Quartermaster with Thache in 1716-1717 prior to Howard; seaman with Thache from April through late June 1718; one of Thache’s many Bath County pirates.
William Cunningham: Gunner aboard Queen Anne’s Revenge until spring 1718.
Garret Gibbons: Bosun and one of Thache’s many Bath County pirates.
Thomas Miller: Quartermaster of Adventure.
Philip Morton: Gunner aboard Adventure.