by Elva Cobb Martin
If you missed Part 1 "Charleston Held Hostage" you can find it in my archive.
After holding Charles Town hostage until his demands were met, Blackbeard sailed away. He had to be gloating over the fact that not only had he taken the most valuable loot of his career, he had, as one writer put it, “reduced to total submission the proud and militant people of South Carolina without firing a single shot.”
If you missed Part 1 "Charleston Held Hostage" you can find it in my archive.
After holding Charles Town hostage until his demands were met, Blackbeard sailed away. He had to be gloating over the fact that not only had he taken the most valuable loot of his career, he had, as one writer put it, “reduced to total submission the proud and militant people of South Carolina without firing a single shot.”
What Blackbeard and his cohorts did not count on was that in the South, revenge rides hard on the heels of humiliation.
Once the pirate squadron sailed out of Charleston Harbor and Samuel Wragg and the other hostages had replaced their clothing, if not their dignity, white-hot Southern dander rose to the surface in the Charleston waters.
It was just the stimulus needed for the difficult task of subduing the hitherto fashionable vice known as piracy.
History records the results.
The courts of Charleston, in November of that same year of 1718, tried, convicted and caused to be hanged in the period of one month a total of 49 pirates.
The pride of South Carolina was certainly restored in great measure by these successes against piracy. Blackbeard, however, was not among those executed in Charleston.
He died on November 22, 1718, at the hand of Lt. Robert Maynard. Maynard and his crew, sent by Lt. Gov. Alexander Spotswood of Virginia, challenged Blackbeard near his Ocracoke, North Carolina, hideout. After being wounded an astounding 25 times, 20 cutlass wounds and five gunshot wounds, Blackbeard succumbed.
Maynard reportedly chopped off Blackbeard’s head and attached it to his mast and sailed home. Legend has it that when they threw the body over board, it swam around the boat seven times before sinking.
So goes the story of Blackbeard, Colonial terrorist.
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Blessings,
Elva
Elva Cobb Martin is president of the South Carolina Chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers (2014-2017). She is a former school teacher and a graduate of Anderson University and Erskine College. She has two inspirational novels contracted with Lighthouse Publishers of the Carolinas. Summer of Deception, a contemporary romantic suspense, and an historical romance, In a Pirate’s Debt. Both have spent time on Amazon’s 100 Best Sellers List for Women’s Religious Fiction. Decision, Charisma, and Home Life have carried Elva's articles. Jim Hart of Hartline Literary represents her. She and her husband Dwayne are semi-retired ministers. A mother and grandmother, Elva lives in Anderson, South Carolina. Connect with her on her web site http://www.elvamartin.com, her blog http://carolinaromancewithelvamartin.blogspot.com, on Twitter www.twitter.com/ElvaCobbMartin; Facebook http://www.facebook.com/elvacobbmartin; and Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/elvacobbmartin
Link to her romance novels, Summer of Deception and In a Pirate's Debt, and a Bible study, Power Over Satan on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2pOgVHI