Blackbeard the Pirate?

Blackbeard the Pirate.

Next to Johnny Depp, Blackbeard is arguably one of the most famous (or infamous) pirates the world over.  “Pirate” is even in his name.  Any Outer Banks history buff worth their weight knows of Blackbeard’s pillaging/piracy and hideout along the OBX coast.

Or do we?  Are these facts accurate?

Blackbeard expert, writer, and filmmaker, Kevin Duffus has some  alternative ideas.  Rather than a murderous Englishman, Blackbeard may have been an upstanding Eastern North Carolina resident who only dabbled briefly in piracy.

Well, that’s quite a different perspective!

ENCToday.com covered a recent Duffus lecture in New Bern, NC where he discussed these alternative historical theories.   Duffus felt it appropriate to deliver the lecture in New Bern because the area has strong connections to his theory a highly interested audience. The theater was crowded to standing-room-only capacity…I guess he was right. 

Duffus’ lecture discusses the material he presents in his 2008 book, The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate.  In total, Duffus has published three books and produced four documentaries, all related to Outer Banks history.

Duffus led the audience through his discoveries that provide a compelling argument to rewrite Blackbeard history. Letters and documents indicate that Blackbeard had a sister named Susanna who lived on property along the Neuse River, that he had a high level of familiarity with North Carolina colonial Gov. Eden and an official named Tobias Knight, and that he had never killed a single person.

“I think his name was James Black Beard,” Duffus said, referring to a sea captain and landowner in the Bath, N.C. area. “I can’t prove it. This is all circumstantial evidence.”

James Black Beard was a neighbor of Eden and Knight. The sea captain supposedly died in 1711, but there is no record of his death. Someone paid the property taxes on his land until 1718, the year the pirate Blackbeard was killed following a battle at Ocracoke. Duffus believes that Beard also had a sister, Susanna Beard Franck.

Duffus pieced together the lives and circumstances of numerous people to come to this conclusion. He also found enough evidence to dispel popular accounts in Blackbeard history and to reconstruct the pirate’s whereabouts for the last six months of his life.

His theory involves a Spanish ship that had sunk off the coast of Florida in 1715, leaving a treasure trove of gold and other riches. At the time, the North Carolina economy was faltering, and Duffus believes that Eden had sent James Black Beard and his crew to retrieve some of the booty. By the time they arrived at the wreck site, the Spaniards had already guarded the area. It is then, Duffus thinks, that Blackbeard turned to piracy. Eden also pardoned Blackbeard in the summer of 1718, Duffus said.

Blackbeard the Upstanding Citizen!?  Doesn’t really have the same ring to it.