Blackbeard (Edward Thatch, Teach, or Tench) was one of the best known of the pirates whose activities expanded in the period 1716-1718 when the end of the war against Spain threw great numbers of seamen out of work. He appeared off Charleston in June of 1717, captured eight or nine ships, and threatened to kill his prisoners and burn the town if the residents did not send him a chest of medicines. After Stede Bonnet's execution (see Major Stede Bonnet), Thatch fled to North Carolina, where he was killed on the deck of a Virginia ship on November 22, 1718.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
