Blackbeard

In the 18th century, Blackbeard never killed anyone. He did, however, shoot his own crewmates. In duels on his own sea vessel, he tested his own men. He plundered everything from food and liquor to weaponry but there are extremely scarce reports of him actually taking a life.

The reverse happened to him. Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood ordered Lieutenant Robert Maynard to capture Blackbeard, suspicious of how the pirate had gained his wealth in retirement. Maynard’s reward? £100.

While investigating the whereabouts of the infamous buccaneer, Maynard picked up the scent of Blackbeard and his men in North Carolina.

Like a scene out of an opera, the lieutenant ran after Blackbeard as if on a stage. The two men fought each other without guns for a time, exchanging blow for blow.

Then the guns came out and he sustained five shots to his frame. Maynard then proceeded to stab the man at least twenty times.

Blackbeard then lost his head and Maynard put it on a pike in Virginia. Blackbeard’s given name of Edward Teach lent itself to where his head rested. That area is now known as Teach’s Point.

All kinds of legends swirl around Blackbeard from his call to the fact he set fire to his own ship just below decks to determine their survival skills.

Other stories have the pirate whistling through the timbers of North Carolina when the moon hangs high in the sky, full as a pregnant woman’s belly.

Other tales paint Blackbeard’s body as swimming seven times before submerging to the watery depths below.

This lore is common with pirates. The romanticism is so great that it lends to the imagination to create these scoundrels and thieves. These lowlife vermin losers equate to nothing and nobodys.

They show themselves to be the worst creatures on the planet when they rob and steal from legitimate people.

Blackbeard was no different. He prowled the forests of North Carolina in retirement like he sailed the high seas during the height of his scams and other deleterious behavior.

His reign came to a bloody end because of karma. Now, this isn’t some mystical notion of a spell put over the human race depending on when you’re born. No, his actions led to his disastrous final state.

His demise meant that other pirates would become emboldened to do what he did, despite the weighty outcome.

Heavy was Blackbeard’s head during his life. By instilling order on his ship at the time of his crimes, he shot at them. This is a high-risk sort of business. A bloody one at that.

In consideration of the pirate’s entire life as a crook and a menace, he should be shown as the lowest of the low. With all of his ill-gotten goods, his place in legends, and his stories end, he should be remembered for his disgusting demeanor.

One of the men who inspired millions of Halloween costumes gives most people the license to say they’re “Blackbeard!”

In reality, there shouldn’t even be jest in this regard. To play up the swashbuckling image of a devious thief is to excuse the debasement that Blackbeard displayed. It is to cheapen the idea of a pirate and say, “Oh, they’re just having fun!”

So, should people dress up like Kamkize pilots or Mohammad Attah? Pirates were “bad hombres” to say the least. To this day, pirates disrupt billions of dollars in the markets of finance, healthcare, and entertainment, just to list a few.

Blackbeard will always be associated with underhandedness. His legacy will be that of an overgrown adolescent, too afraid to be a man.