Blackbeard: The Historiography Of The Atlantic World

On a calm day in May of 1718 the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a warship of forty guns, and three sloops appeared on the horizon off the coast of Charleston. Edward Teach, more famously known as Blackbeard, had arrived with his pirate fleet. Taking up a position outside the harbor, Blackbeard used surprise to his advantage and captured ten ships as they attempted to leave the harbor. One of those ships, The Crowley, was returning to London when it was waylaid by the famous pirate. Among the passengers on the Crowley were one Samuel Wragg and his son William. Wragg was a member of the Carolina Provincial council, and a wealthy merchant with significant ties to London. Those ties, and his adventures as Blackbeard’s captive would eventually lend weight to his parliamentary appeals for military aid to his beleaguered colony and its commercial interests. Upon discovering the identity of his hostage, Blackbeard was quick to capitalize on his good fortune, ransoming his hostages for desperately needed medical supplies for his crew. Upon the completion of the transaction, the pirates released their hostages on a nearby beach after relieving them of their …show more content…
Historians see the creation of networks that facilitated trade and communication as an organic process where colonial merchants built trade networks through ties of kinship and trust, forming the foundation of a new economic system that motivated the individuals and nations alike. For colonial merchants, the preservation of trade was vital. Merchant networks were complex and robust systems that allowed individual merchants the freedom to conduct business in whatever manner they chose, granting them the leeway they needed to operate in the new transnational economic system that was emerging throughout the Atlantic