Book: Blackbeard and crew born in Carolinas
JERRY ALLEGOOD, Staff Writer
The News & Observer, Raleigh
April 27, 2008
BATH - In a pirate-worthy broadside on conventional history, a Raleigh author claims that Blackbeard and many of his henchmen weren't rogue Englishmen, but sons of North Carolina landowners.
Most historical accounts contend that the notorious pirate known as Edward Teach or Thatch was from Bristol, England. But Kevin P. Duffus said his review of archives and genealogical research indicates that Blackbeard was probably Edward Beard, son of a landowner in Bath in Beaufort County.
"There's never going to be a smoking gun to determine who he really was," Duffus said of the pirate. "My version is a lot more plausible than what's been foisted upon us for nearly three centuries."
The writer also claims that several of Blackbeard's crew members were not hanged as earlier accounts said and at least three returned to North Carolina to respectable -- and wealthy -- lives.
With the help of genealogists, Duffus has found a descendant of one of Blackbeard's known crew members, Edward Salter. Under prodding by Duffus, state officials are investigating whether a skeleton kept for years in a state archaeology lab in Raleigh is that of Salter, who lived out his life near Bath.
The bones were recovered in 1986 from a crypt near the Pamlico River. If DNA tests show that the bones are Salter's, the identification would establish that at least one of Blackbeard's men had family roots in Bath.
Steve Claggett, the state archaeologist, said such a scenario could be true.
"I think there's a pretty good case for it," he said.
The state already claims the wreckage of Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. Hundreds of artifacts, including cannons, ship rigging and even traces of gold dust, have been recovered since 1996 from Beaufort Inlet, where historians say the pirate ran the ship aground.
Duffus is bracing for a backlash from historians and Blackbeard buffs. He admits he doesn't have conclusive proof of his assertions, but he thinks they are more plausible than versions that have been around for generations.
"Blackbeard followers revel in retelling their favorite Blackbeard fable over the years," he said. "I realize they will not let go of them easily."
The pirate is largely known for his exploits late in his life, before troops from Virginia tracked him down and killed him at Ocracoke in 1718. His ties to Bath have been documented, and some have become the stuff of legend, but there is scant evidence of his early life.
The new theory
Duffus' theory is that Blackbeard was the son of Capt. James Beard of the Goose Creek area near Charleston, S.C., who owned about 400 acres on the west bank of Bath Creek as early as 1707. He says Beard's son Edward, born in South Carolina in 1690, came to Eastern North Carolina with his father but was also taken to Philadelphia, where he learned his sailing skills.
Duffus suggests that Edward Beard sported a black beard and used "Black" as a nickname, much like fellow pirate Black Sam Bellamy. By his account, Thatch or Teach was an alias, and the pirate's moniker was actually Black Beard, later condensed to Blackbeard.
Most accounts of Blackbeard's early years stem from references by Capt. Charles Johnson in "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates [sic]," an 18th-century best-seller. "Edward Teach was a Bristol man born," he wrote.
But Duffus says there is no documentation of a Teach or Thatch in Bristol, and no one knows for sure who Johnson was or where he obtained his information.
"They [skeptics] can accept seven words written by an author whose true identity remains a mystery," he said -- "or a preponderance of circumstantial evidence."
David Moore, curator of nautical archaeology at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort, agreed that the link to Bristol is tenuous. But he also said the link to Bath is speculative.
"I find it extremely hard to believe if there was an association we wouldn't know it now," he said.
Moore, who has researched Blackbeard's career, said new claims will spur more interest in the legends -- not that pirate lore has been lacking.
"Pirates and piracy have held a fascination with the general public since piracy began," he said.
Another pirate researcher, Charles Ewen of East Carolina University, said Duffus' theories about Blackbeard and Edward Salter are plausible, but he maintains his skepticism. He said it may be difficult to ever find a definitive answer.
"The onus is on the naysayers," he said.
Overlooked documents
In his self-published book, "The Last Days of Blackbeard the Pirate," Duffus recounts his search for answers to the mysteries surrounding Blackbeard's link to Eastern North Carolina. He says he found documents that earlier researchers either overlooked or ignored.
For instance, he cites a document in British archives that says two vessels that cornered Blackbeard at Ocracoke approached from Pamlico Sound. Earlier accounts indicated they came from the ocean. That is a significant difference, he said, because it explains why Blackbeard was surprised in waters he knew well.
"If history could make this error, what other errors could have been made in telling the Blackbeard story?" he asked.
Traditional accounts also said that 15 men suspected of being part of Blackbeard's crew were tried in Williamsburg, Va., in 1719. Thirteen were reportedly convicted and hanged, one was pardoned for his testimony, and the other was not a crew member and was acquitted.
According to Duffus, nine were either pardoned or acquitted, and only six were executed. Three with ties to Bath, including Edward Salter, were not hanged, he said, adding that Salter became a merchant and gentleman who owned substantial property.
Some of Duffus' findings are not new. He credits genealogy research on Beard and Salter by Allen Hart Norris, John H. Oden III and Jane Stubbs Bailey that was published in a journal in 2002. But he has also traced Salter's line to a possible living descendant.
State officials are reviewing Duffus' request for DNA testing on the skeletal remains in Raleigh. Claggett, the state archaeologist, said the studies could cost up to $6,000. He said other researchers are considering facial reconstructions that would show what the man looked like.
Duffus is challenging other myths and legends about Blackbeard, including the fanciful tale that Blackbeard's headless body continued to swim after being tossed overboard. He says Blackbeard's body is probably buried at Ocracoke along with those of the slain pirates and Royal Navy sailors.
jerry.allegood@newsobserver.com or (252) 752-8411
Rewriting the legend of Blackbeard
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 26, 2008
It's true that Blackbeard fought his final bloody battle at Ocracoke Inlet, and his head was taken triumphantly to Hampton. But much else of what has been recounted about the life and death of the infamous pirate and his crew may be little more than a product of masterful marketing and political cover- ups.
In the "The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate: Within Every Legend Lies a Grain of Truth," Raleigh author Kevin Duffus says the pirate was the son of Capt. James Beard and his real name was Edward Beard. He was born about 1690 near Charleston, S.C., not Bristol, England, as long believed, and had family in Bath, N.C. and Philadelphia.
Duffus said his research of primary sources in England, North Carolina and Virginia found a much different version than that written in 1724 by Charles Johnson in "A General History of the Pyrates."
For more, click here.
Interview on State of Things, WUNC-FM
Wednesday, June 11 2008
The subtitle to Raleigh author Kevin Duffus’ latest book is, “Within every legend lies a grain of truth.” Duffus has been on a 35-year mission to uncover the grains of truth within the legend of North Carolina’s best-known seafarer. But mostly what he has found is historical inaccuracy. Among other things, he questions widely accepted beliefs about Blackbeard’s origins and the fate of his crew on the day of his death. Duffus joins guest host Eric Hodge to debunk some of the popular myths about the scandalous pirate.
Interview on Public Radio East, WTEB-FM
July 10, 2008 by George Olsen
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/pre/local-pre-728603.mp3
Writer questions story of legendary pirate Blackbeard
Duffus speaks for Friends of Library
By Keith Barnes
Wilson Times
October 16, 2008
Kevin Duffus didn't actually set out to rewrite history, it just sort of happened that way.
Many of us have heard stories about the famous pirate Blackbeard, said to have roamed the shores of North Carolina in the early 1700s.
While most historical accounts, at least up until now, tell us that Blackbeard was actually Edward Teach from Bristol, England, research done by Duffus claims instead that the buccaneer was likely Edward Beard, son of a landowner from the small eastern N.C. Carolina coastal town of Bath.
Duffus has published the results of many years of research on pirates and Blackbeard into a book titled "The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate" and will speak on this topic Oct. 30 at Wilson Country Club during Friends of Wilson County Public Library annual banquet.
For more, click here.
© 2008 Kevin Duffus photo
Pirates return to Ocracoke to honor their dead
SUNDAE HORN
THE ISLAND FREE PRESS
NOVEMBER 25, 2008
OCRACOKE ISLAND - The steady, slow drumbeat accompanied the marchers as they paraded down Lighthouse Road. Sometimes they sang in unison, and sometimes they marched in silence, with only the sounds of their leather boots striking pavement to accompany the drum. Although photographers swarmed around them, and spectators openly gawked, the marchers never broke ranks or even broke into a smile. It was a solemn occasion, a funeral march, and they kept to their paces, seemingly oblivious to the spectacle they were making.
Pirates had returned to Ocracoke to honor their dead.
Blackbeard’s Crew, a piratical living history troupe based in Hampton, Va., teamed up with Blackbeard historian Kevin Duffus of Raleigh to organize a “Pirate Memorial,” an event that they hope will be the first of many. Fifty-eight men and women in period costumes joined together on Nov. 22 to commemorate the 290th anniversary of the Battle of Ocracoke – that infamous day when Blackbeard the pirate met his match in Lt. Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy.
For more, click here.
Interview on Charlotte Talks, WFAE-FM
Monday, May 5, 2008
Kevin Duffus rejoins the program - he's the author of several books, including "Shipwrecks of the Outer Banks," "The Lost Light: The Mystery of the Misssing Cape Hatteras Fresnel Lens" and now his latest, "The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate." We'll talk about some myths and strongly held beliefs that many have about the famous pirate and which ones turn out not to be fact. Duffus has done painstaking research over a period of several years and has uncovered some interesting truths about the man best known as Black Beard the Pirate. We'll talk about them and his North Carolina roots on the next Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins.
Blackbeard group seeking an ‘Adventure’
Alliance wants area to treasure legacy of famous pirate
By TED STRONG, Staff Writer
WASHINGTON DAILY NEWS
MARCH 6, 2009
The Blackbeard Adventure Alliance wants to stop other places from pirating “our pirate.”
The new nonprofit organization has plans to return Blackbeard’s legacy, and some of the money associated with it, to Beaufort County by building a full-scale replica of Blackbeard’s ship, the Adventure.
The Adventure is the ship Blackbeard was aboard when he was attacked and killed at Ocracoke Inlet by British forces sent to deal with the pirate by the governor of Virginia.
The nonprofit has plans for the replica to serve as an interactive museum — and a way to attract tourists to Washington. Alliance members said the vessel will be historically accurate.
“It’s fully authentic all the way through — except for the engine and to meet Coast Guard regulations,” said Pat Mansfield, one of the group’s organizers.
Mansfield said she’s tired of “having everyone else … steal our pirate.”
For more, click here.
Rewriting a legend
By Jimmy Tomlin
High Point Enterprise
Jan 23,2009
SPENCER, NC - A swashbuckler.
That's what North Carolina author Kevin Duffus is: a bold, adventuresome, take-no-prisoners buccaneer who has dared to steal one of North Carolina's best-known tales - the story of Blackbeard - and replace it with his own highly researched, well-documented version.
"The story that history and pop culture have told us about Blackbeard is an interesting one, but I believe the true story of who he was is actually far more interesting," says Duffus, the author of "The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate."
Duffus will detail his claims about the famed 18th-century pirate during a presentation Saturday at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer.
Among other claims that have shaken up the world of skull-and-crossbones historians, Duffus contends that Blackbeard most likely was not from Bristol, England - as scholars have always believed - nor was his name Edward Teach or Edward Thatch. Instead, Duffus' research has led him to believe the fearsome pirate was a native North Carolinian - Bath, N.C., to be exact - whose last name was Beard.
Duffus, whose other maritime history books include "The Lost Light" and "Shipwrecks of the Outer Banks: An Illustrated Guide," has been fascinated with Blackbeard since his family moved to Greenville when he was a teenager. After reading stories about Blackbeard occasionally visiting his sister at Boyd's Ferry - and after learning she was supposedly buried along the banks of the modern-day Tar River - he decided to become a history detective and go looking for her grave. A journey that took him through swamps and land overgrown with briers finally brought him face to face with the headstone of the woman believed to be the famed pirate's sister.
"You can imagine how exciting that was for a kid standing there thinking he's looking at the grave of Blackbeard's sister," Duffus says, "until I realized she was born 37 years after he died at Ocracoke. That woman's identity and why she was connected to the legend (of Blackbeard) has haunted me for 35 years."
Duffus finally began researching Blackbeard in earnest several years ago, even traveling to London to look at documents and letters housed at the British Archives.
"I began my research with the question in mind, "Is it possible historians may have missed something along the way?'" Duffus recalls. "Very quickly, I was stunned to discover they missed some very significant facts that contradict the traditional story."
Among other claims in Duffus' book are these:
•When Blackbeard's killer, Lt. Robert Maynard, was commissioned by the governor of Virginia to capture the pirate, he approached Teach's Hole - the site of the bloody battle that claimed Blackbeard's life on Nov. 22, 1718 - by sailing down the Pamlico Sound rather than through Ocracoke Inlet (as historians traditionally have thought), which allowed him to catch Blackbeard by surprise.
•A number of Blackbeard's crew members were North Carolina men who were not convicted of being pirates and hanged for their crimes - as history has suggested - but who returned to normal lives in eastern North Carolina.
Understandably, Duffus' book has raised some skeptical eyebrows among maritime historians.
"It's very hard for people who've spent their lives and careers adhering to traditional history to be willing to accept an alternative view," he says.
"I had to be very forthcoming and say that while some new facts I present in the book are irrefutable ... some of the other findings are based on circumstantial evidence. However, I say it's a preponderance of circumstantial evidence."
Pirate bones could be in that box, author says
by Jerry Allegood—Special Correspondent
Raleigh News & Observer
May 15, 2009
WASHINGTON, N.C. -- A Raleigh author is attempting to reopen the 274-year-old estate of a Beaufort County man he thinks was once a member of Blackbeard's pirate crew -- and whose bones may be stored in a box in Raleigh.
Kevin P. Duffus, a writer and filmmaker, says he needs access to the estate of Edward Salter, a landowner and merchant who died in 1735, to help confirm that the state has Salter's remains. With the backing of some of Salter's descendants, Duffus is seeking to have DNA testing done on bones that the state Office of State Archaeology recovered from a gravesite in Bath 23 years ago.
If the bones are Salter's, not only could they be given a proper burial, Duffus says, but they could help prove that at least one of Blackbeard's pirates was not executed in Williamsburg, Va., as popular history says. Duffus contends that Salter was a barrel maker who was forced to join the pirate's crew after being hijacked aboard a ship.
But state officials opposed Duffus' petition to be named executor of Salter's estate, saying "mere speculation" about the identity of the remains does not justify reopening the estate. State officials said the state archaeologist is required by law to preserve human remains in state custody.
For more, click here.
The last will and testament of Edward Salter, cooper, planter, merchant and suspected member of Black Beard’s pirate crew. In the preamble of Salter’s will, he stated: "My body, I desire may be decently interred according to the Discretion of my wife and Executors hereafter named."
© 2009 Kevin Duffus photo
Book holds fast to slowly disappearing
legacy of shipwrecks
Catherine Kozak
The Virginian-Pilot
September 14, 2006
OCRACOKE ISLAND -It used to be that the ocean regularly coughed up pieces of wrecked ships onto the beaches of the Outer Banks, remnants of lost struggles with savage storms and unseen enemies.
Oftentimes, islanders salvaged the debris that washed ashore, crafting houses and furniture out of the sturdy timbers. Many times, they buried bodies of strangers on nearby hummocks or ridges, their graves unmarked, their stories forever untold.
Hundreds more were taken to eternity, silently, by a terrible sea.
"The Outer Banks of North Carolina is known, first and foremost, as the graveyard of the Atlantic," said Kevin Duffus, author of "Shipwrecks of the Outer Banks, An Illustrated Guide." "Literally, from Virginia Beach to Cape Lookout, I consider the Outer Banks a vast seafaring cemetery."
For more, click here.
© 2006 Chris Curry Virginian-Pilot photo
on Springer’s
Point at Ocracoke
Irene Nolan, Editor
The Island Free Press, Hatteras Island, NC
October 2006
Ocracoke Island - It is about an hour before sunset on a spectacular Ocracoke evening. It is the night of the new moon — the last day of summer.
There are seven of us heading down the path through the North Carolina Land Trust’s property to Springer’s Point. We walk through the canopy of live oaks and native shrubs over a high hammock and head to the shore of Ocracoke Inlet. Then we make our way through tall marsh grasses toward a small, sandy beach that faces Teach’s Hole in the inlet.
We are looking for ghosts — one ghost, in particular.
Teach’s Hole was the site of the death of the notorious pirate Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard in 1718.
It is said that Blackbeard and his band of pirates camped and partied on Springer’s Point and that his headless spirit still roams the beach there. We are hoping that on this evening, we will contact his spirit.
We are serious about this.
In the lead is Kevin Duffus, the Raleigh-based author and filmmaker, whose next project will be a documentary on the pirate and who has arranged this evening.
For more, click here.
© 2006 Kevin Duffus photo
©2009 Looking Glass Productions, Inc. USA, All Rights Reserved.