Teach alias Black-Beard" colored print, engraved on copper, Oliver Payne 1736 ( Public Domain )Īfter this war was over, Edward returned to civilian life - which wasn’t easy or adventurous by any stretch of the imagination. For a boy who spent most of his youth fantasizing about the life of a buccaneer, he wanted more out of this privateering experience. He would get his wish in 1716 when he met a man by the name of Captain Benjamin Hornigold. Edward became Hornigold’s protégé, learned the skill of piracy from him, and took on the name Captain Blackbeard. Edward Teach Becomes BlackbeardĮdward was born to a well-educated, aristocratic family who were able to read and write, a skill afforded very few in his lifetime. Edward was an equally educated youth who spent most of his childhood enthralled by tales about privateering and new world explorations.īefore Edward became a pirate, he was a privateer in Queen Anne’s war which lasted from 1702 to 1713. This war was one of several wars fought between Britain and France for control of the North American continent. Both sides brutally raided one another for land and booty during the war and it is likely that during this conflict Edward became fascinated with the idea of seizing goods to amass his own personal fortune.
History records Blackbeard as one of the most notorious pirates but his early years weren’t as infamous or inglorious. Edward Teach, the man who would later become the pirate known as Blackbeard, had a relatively normal childhood. His criminal lifestyle aboard his ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which brought him fame later in life, wasn’t fueled by exposure to a sketchy upbringing. “So our Heroe, Captain Teach, assumed the Cognomen of Black-beard, from that large Quantity of Hair, which, like a frightful Meteor, covered his whole Face, and frightened America more than any Comet that has appeared there a long Time.”
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