Blackbeard

North Carolina's most celebrated early resident was a man named Blackbeard. Edward Teach,better known as Blackbeard was a notorious English pirate in the Carribean Sea. He only lived a short while, North Carolinians have claimed him as our own.For the last several years we have been finding remains of Blackbeards ship "Queen Anne's Revenge" in Beaufort NC. Recently,researchers in Beaufort have come up with a new idea. They believe the historical records show that Blackbeard might have grown up in Bath NC. Actually, they think that when Blackbeard took refuge in North Carolina sounds from his days of pirating. During the war, Englishmen were lincented as privateers, which meant that they were allowed to attack any Spanish ship that approached nearby. Also they could take anything they wanted off of the Spanish ships. After the war, some privateers couldn't stop. They would raid ships of all nations, even England. Blackbeard operated out of the island of Jamaica. He raided ships all over the carribean intil the English sent thier navy to stop the piracy. In 1717, the English offered all pirates a pardon. In 1718, Blackbeard sailed into Pamilico Sound and surrendered to the North Carolina government. He bought a house, and finally got married and supposedly settled down. Actually, he was unable to stop pirating, he went out again, and soon was caught plotting his next mov. The pirate literally lost his head on November 22,1718, at Ocracoke Inlet.