Duffus to speak about “Black Beard’s Black Pirates: Their Origins, Their Identities, and Their Fates”

From the North Carolina Maritime History Council
Join award-winning research historian, author and filmmaker Kevin Duffus in a keynote address to the annual meeting of the North Carolina Maritime History Council on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Turnage Theater as he explores these questions and exposes one of the greatest myths of the Golden Age of Piracy in an effort to find the elusive truth of history. The presentation is open to the public.

For nearly 300 years, Bath Creek has harbored a remarkable secret, a secret that survived only as an oral tradition — closely-kept among families, quietly whispered in polite company and among trusted friends, for the most part forgotten — that the Pamlico River was the launching point of intrepid treasure salvors, smugglers and world-famous pirates. Until now, this historical truth has been eclipsed by the colossal legend of popular culture’s fictional version of Black Beard, leading generations to believe that these men were ruthless, bloodthirsty criminals. Many of these men were the sons, or in some instances, slaves, of Pamlico-area plantation owners. Indeed, many of those who survived the chaos and unprincipled years of the Golden Age of Piracy became the founding grandfathers of this, our great nation.
When the notorious pirate Black Beard departed Beaufort Inlet after intentionally wrecking and abandoning the former slave ship he renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge, his crew numbered 40 white men and 60 black men. Some pirate historians today tout the apparent racial diversity of Black Beard’s crew, marveling that six out of 10 of Black Beard’s pirates were black. But what those same pirate historians fail to note is that six months later, when Black Beard was killed at Ocracoke, he had aboard his sloop only six black men. The other 54 black men had been left behind at Bath. Where did they go? What was the status of blacks among Black Beard’s pirates and were they treated as equals, servants or slaves? Where did they come from, what was their fate, and is it possible to find their descendants today?