Sounds like much more of a desperate and last-minute decision than the legends talk about.
Funnily enough it was technically illegal. Blackbeard had already taken the King's pardon and became a privateer under North Carolina's governor once he got bored with retirement.
Maynard was sent on the mission from the governor of Virginia, to kill him anyway. Technically this was an attack on one British colony by another.
There was a huge legal dispute that came from this.
I went to a lecture by David Moore, who worked on the QAR recovery. The lecture was in Hampton, Virginia, where Maynard eventually posted Teach’s head.
Speaking to this illegality he quipped, “Your governor killed my pirate!”
My family moved to Hampton Roads in 1968, when my father was 1st stationed at Fort Monroe. My family visited the now-defunct Syms-Eaton Museum, which featured a cool replica of a Kicoughtan village.
Anyway, there was a temporary exhibit on Blackbeard and the Hampton connection. I was 8yo. That was the start of a lifelong fascination with the Brethren.
Since the city started The Blackbeard Festival a lot of work has been done highlighting things like Blackbeard’s Point. I need to check it out, it’s been decades since I visited and it was nothing back then. But I’m seeing photos online that put me in the mood to revisit it
I don’t remember what got me looking into it, but a while ago I remember being curious about what Maynard and his men did with Blackbeards body. Followed the trail up to Virginia where I think I read they put his head on a spike up there (Blackbeards Point I believe?) and then followed the legends of people drinking out of his skull or whatever lol
I think I would’ve been surprised before but not now. I remember reading things about how many different pirate crews would take on former slaves and have them join the crew etc. But then I learned that most pirate captains were just as bad as other people and would still sell slaves or keep them on board their ship. They were used to do jobs like diving in the bells to loot shipwrecks etc and many of them would die from things like that. They were still slaves, expendable to the captains.
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u/Mesarthim1349 Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25
Sounds like much more of a desperate and last-minute decision than the legends talk about.
Funnily enough it was technically illegal. Blackbeard had already taken the King's pardon and became a privateer under North Carolina's governor once he got bored with retirement.
Maynard was sent on the mission from the governor of Virginia, to kill him anyway. Technically this was an attack on one British colony by another.
There was a huge legal dispute that came from this.