Your Life as a Pirate: Blackbeard and the Golden Age of Piracy

The Caribbean, spring 1718. A black flag climbs the mast – and your captain is the most famous pirate who ever lived: Blackbeard. Live through the Golden Age of Piracy: a hard youth as a ship's boy from Bristol, the pirate republic of Nassau, a ship where the crew writes its own rules and votes for its captain, the chase of a merchant ship – and the short, wild career of Blackbeard, from Queen Anne's Revenge to his last fight at Ocracoke in 1718. Plus the myths the movies invented, and the real pirate wrecks you can see today. An animated history film, drawn in ink. Chapters 0:00 The Caribbean, spring 1718 0:36 Born in Bristol: a sailor's life 0:57 Privateers – robbing with permission 1:08 The war ends (1713) 1:18 The 1715 treasure fleet 1:31 Nassau, a pirate republic 1:47 Hornigold and Blackbeard 2:03 A pirate ship is a democracy 2:23 Quartermaster, shares and insurance 2:49 Strict rules – and a captain voted out 3:05 A crew from everywhere 3:17 Myths: the plank and buried treasure 3:43 Treasure Island, "Arrr" and the eye patch 4:05 Blackbeard's flag and your real weapons 4:27 Life on board 4:44 The chase 4:54 What you really take 5:15 La Concorde becomes Queen Anne's Revenge 5:35 Did Blackbeard ever kill anyone? 5:58 The blockade of Charleston 6:16 Aground – and a pardon 6:26 The last fight at Ocracoke 6:58 Woodes Rogers and the king's pardon 7:13 The hunt and the gallows 7:35 Anne Bonny and Mary Read 7:50 How pirates became legends 8:22 The real ships today 8:47 The Whydah and its bell 9:03 Museums – and the Bahamas 9:15 And you? Sources & further reading • Captain Charles Johnson, "A General History of the Pyrates" (London, 1724) – incl. the articles of Bartholomew Roberts' crew • Colin Woodard, "The Republic of Pirates" (2007) • Marcus Rediker, "Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age" (2004) • Eric Jay Dolin, "Black Flags, Blue Waters" (2018) • Kenneth J. Kinkor, "Black Men under the Black Flag", in C. R. Pennell (ed.), "Bandits at Sea" (2001) • Smithsonian Magazine (2018): "Three Centuries After His Beheading, a Kinder, Gentler Blackbeard Emerges" (with Baylus Brooks and Charles Ewen) • South Carolina Encyclopedia: "Blackbeard" – the blockade of Charleston, May 1718 • North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources – Queen Anne's Revenge project (wreck found 1996, identified 2011); North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort • Whydah Pirate Museum, Massachusetts – the Whydah Gally (found 1984, ship's bell 1985) • Royal Museums Greenwich: "Why do pirates say 'arr'?" Many details are still debated by historians – numbers and dates are best estimates. Which life from history should we live next? Tell us in the comments! Subscribe to Sepia Saga – history, drawn in ink. #history #pirates #blackbeard